KEY WEST - A Cuban architect was convicted Thursday of hijacking a passenger plane from the communist island to Key West using two fake grenades.
Adermis Wilson Gonzalez, 34, on April 1 forced the Cuban Airlines AN-24, with 31 people aboard, to fly from the Isle of Youth to Key West, with a long stop in Havana for food and fuel.
The jury reached the verdict after deliberating about an hour in the politically sensitive case.
U.S. Attorney Marcos Jimenez said the conviction disproved Cuban criticism that the United States is lenient on Cuban hijackers. "Nothing could be further from the truth," he said.
Defense attorney Stewart G. Abrams had argued that U.S. courts had no jurisdiction because any air piracy happened in Cuban air space.
A day after the hijacking, the Castro regime executed three Cubans for hijacking a Cuban ferry.
Wilson is to be sentenced Sept. 19. He faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 20 years in prison.
Six Cubans face trial in Key West in September over a March hijacking.
