Judge Orders Bail for Accused Jet Bomber

EL PASO, April 6 — A federal judge Friday ordered Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles set free on bail pending trial on charges that he lied in a bid to become a U.S. citizen. The government immediately asked that he remain jailed while it determines if it can appeal the judge’s decision.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone did not immediately rule on the request. Felipe D.J. Millan, Posada’s attorney, said Posada will probably not be released over the holiday weekend.

Posada, 79, is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela on charges that he was in Caracas when he plotted the deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner. He also has been ordered deported by a federal immigration judge, though U.S. authorities have been unable to find a country willing to accept the former CIA operative.

Cardone ordered that Posada post a $250,000 cash or corporate surety bond. His wife and two adult children must post a $100,000 appearance and compliance signature bond and agree to take responsibility of him when he is released.

The judge also ordered that Posada, who had a role in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, live with his wife in Miami under 24-hour home confinement and submit to electronic monitoring.

Posada has been jailed since May 2005, when he was arrested on an immigration violation after telling authorities that he sneaked across the Mexican border into Texas. An immigration judge later ordered that he be deported but ruled that Posada could not be sent to Cuba, where he was born, or Venezuela, where he is a naturalized citizen, because of fears that he could be tortured.