Lawyer: US citizen accused of hijacking NY-to-Cuba plane in 1968 tried to come back to country

Lawyer: Hijacking suspect sought return for years

NEW YORK — A U.S. citizen accused of hijacking a plane from New York to Cuba in 1968 had been trying to return to the United States for years, his lawyer said Wednesday.

The attorney, James Neuman, said outside court that Luis Armando Pena Soltren had approached U.S. authorities in Cuba for several years about returning to the United States before finally arriving on a commercial flight Sunday, when he was arrested.

“He wanted to return here. He wanted to face these charges,” Neuman said of his client, who appeared in U.S. District Court in Manhattan for a brief pretrial hearing Wednesday. “I don’t know why it took the time it did to arrange the transfer.”

Pena Soltren, 66, pleaded not guilty a day earlier to conspiracy to commit air piracy and kidnapping, interference with flight crew members, aircraft piracy and kidnapping. If convicted, he could face life in prison. Two others who pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the case in the 1970s were sentenced to 15 years or less.

An indictment returned in December 1968 charged Pena Soltren and two others with using pistols and large knives to force the pilots of Pan American Flight 281 to divert their San Juan, Puerto Rico-bound flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Havana instead.

The November 1968 flight had 103 passengers and crew aboard.

Neuman said he was not aware of any deals his client might have made with authorities in Cuba or the United States before he arrived at the same airport where he was accused of boarding the flight 41 years ago.

But he said he had only spoken to Pena Soltren for little more than an hour over two days and most of that time was spent explaining court documents and the law through a translator.

“He’s listening to me. He’s attentive. He recognizes the gravity of the charges,” Neuman said.

The lawyer said Pena Soltren has a wife and four daughters. He said his client had worked in agriculture “in the fields” in Cuba and had a rudimentary understanding of English.

He said he appeared to be fit.

“He does not have a history of emotional or physical problems that I’m aware of. I have not asked him his state of mind,” he said.

In court Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Poscablo told Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein that the evidence against Pena Soltren includes a letter he wrote, but he did not provide any details. Neuman said he knew nothing about a letter.

Poscablo said the active case file had very little in it.

Neuman said the difficulty of developing evidence in a 41-year-old case will “naturally present hurdles for them.”

He noted that one defendant in the case had already been acquitted and said he presumed his client was innocent.