Fugitive hijacker leaving Cuba to face US justice

Posted on Wednesday, 11.06.13

Fugitive hijacker leaving Cuba to face US justice
BY PETER ORSI
ASSOCIATED PRESS

HAVANA -- William Potts has long been beyond the reach of U.S. justice
in Havana, where he served time for a hijacking, then settled down with
a Cuban woman, started a family and made his livelihood as a farmer.

On Wednesday, nearly three decades after he hijacked an airline flight
and forced it to bring him to the Communist-run island, he's heading
back to a now-unfamiliar homeland and an uncertain legal future.

"I've got kind of mixed emotions, let me say that at least, about
touching American soil for the first time in nearly 30 years," Potts
said. "So much has changed, and I'm just going to have to wait and see
what it looks like when I get there."

Potts, who has been working with U.S. diplomats in Havana in recent
weeks to get a passport, said they contacted him Tuesday to report that
his travel arrangements were made and he could leave on a charter flight
to Miami on Wednesday morning.

He said his understanding was that he would be escorted by U.S.
officials and delivered into the custody of U.S. marshals on arrival in
Florida.

"What happens after that I couldn't tell you," Potts told The Associated
Press by phone from his home in Havana. "I hope to be arraigned soon."

Potts, now 56, was a young man in 1984 when he pulled a gun hidden in a
plaster cast and commandeered a commercial flight headed from New Jersey
to Florida. He ordered it to Cuba, where he expected authorities to
offer him guerrilla training.

Instead, he was convicted of air piracy and jailed for more than 13 years.

Potts said he seeks "closure" by facing the U.S. justice system. He
argues that the time he served in the Combinado del Este prison outside
Havana should mitigate further punishment back home, but admitted
there's no guarantee.

"I'm ready for whatever," Potts said. "My position is, of course, I did
the crime and I did the time, and the United States has to recognize that."

U.S. Interests Section, FBI and Cuban officials did not have any comment
on Potts' case.

U.S. authorities have aggressively prosecuted some returning fugitives,
while others saw their sentences reduced significantly for time served
elsewhere.

After getting out of jail in Cuba, Potts set about making a new life in
Cuba, where he has been granted permanent residency. He and his now
ex-wife live in a modest Soviet-style apartment block east of Havana.

Even though Potts intends to continue to call Cuba home for the
foreseeable future, he decided to return home and take his chances with
the legal system. The pending U.S. case against him keeps him from
living his life fully, he said.

"It's time it had closure. Why leave it hanging, why leave this gaping
uncertainty?" he said. "So I want to resolve that because ... having
completed my sentence, I feel like I want to put all that stuff behind
me. I don't want that lingering over or impeding anything I might want
to do. Once you've paid your debt to society you're entitled to a fresh
start."

---

Associated Press writer Curt Anderson in Miami contributed to this report.

Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter-Orsi

Source: "HAVANA: Fugitive hijacker leaving Cuba to face US justice -
Latest News - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/06/3734392/fugitive-hijacker-leaving-cuba.html#storylink=misearch