Jury Convicts INS Official

A U.S. immigration official accused of espionage by revealing secrets to a friend with ties to Cuba was convicted Tuesday by a federal jury.

Mariano Faget, 54, a naturalized U.S. citizen who came from Cuba as a teenager, took the stand in his own defense last week to say that he had "made a mistake" when he passed classified information to his life-long friend, a businessman.

The 12 jurors began deliberating Thursday on the charges that carry up to 10 years in prison. They were off Friday through Monday, and returned their verdict after about three additional hours of work Tuesday.

Faget, 54, was an acting deputy director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Miami when the FBI caught him calling friend and business partner Pedro Font with the name of a soon-to-be Cuban defector

He had been warned the classified information was secret.

He also was convicted on charges of converting government property in the form of secret information to his own use, lying on a national security form by saying he had no foreign business ties and lying about his contacts with a Cuban official.

Prosecutors relied on surveillance tapes to prove their case, while the defense challenged an assertion required for a conviction that Faget intended to hurt the United States or help Cuba.

During trial, defense attorney Edward O'Donnell called Faget "an honest government servant who made a mistake."

Faget was close to retirement after 34 years with the INS. He and Font formed America Cuba Inc. to pursue business in Cuba once the trade embargo is gone.

Faget testified that he tipped off his friend because Font was meeting with a Cuban diplomat that day. Faget said he feared Font would be harmed if Cuban officials thought he was involved with the defection.

But the prosecutor ridiculed Faget's assertion that he didn't think telling Font about the defection would hurt national security.

"He took it out of the realm of control of the United States government and gave it to someone else, to use however they wanted," assistant U.S. attorney Curtis Miner told the jury in his closing.

The Faget case also involved a Cuban diplomat who was expelled from the United States and returned to Cuba in March, after five days of hiding in Canada.

Jose Imperatori, 46, resigned as vice-consul of Cuba's Interests Section in Washington after being accused of providing information to Faget.