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Cuban diplomat accused of spying deport from US

WASHINGTON: A Cuban diplomat, who was accused of spying by the United States but refused to leave the country despite a formal expulsion order, was taken from his Maryland home by FBI agents on Saturday night and put on a flight to Montreal.

"The diplomat in question no longer enjoys the privileges and immunities conferred by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic relations. He has been expelled from the United States for not voluntarily departing by the appointed time," U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin said in a statement.

Jose Imperatori, who said he was innocent and has resigned his post as vice-consul of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, was expected on Sunday to fly on to Havana from Canada, an FBI spokeswoman said.

The United States charged Imperatori was a contact for Mariano Faget, a Cuban-born U.S. immigration officer arrested 10 days ago for allegedly spying for Havana.

The State Department ordered the expulsion after FBI agents arrested Faget, an Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) supervisor, for passing information on defectors to Cuba. The FBI said it had watched Faget meet a Washington-based Cuban diplomat at a Miami airport bar.

Imperatori had been given until Saturday to leave the United States but refused, saying he wanted to give up his diplomatic immunity and remain in the United States until he had proven his innocence.

But hours later, FBI agents arrived at his Maryland apartment, put him in a car, and along with his lawyer Kurt Schmoke and two federal agents, drove him to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia.

Cuba's communist government had refused to recall Imperatori and challenged the U.S. government to prove its case in court. U.S. officials have said it would be unprecedented for a foreign state to ignore a Persona Non Grata order.

Havana, which does not have formal diplomatic ties with Washington, has said the spying charges were trumped up by the FBI and Cuban exiles in Miami to hinder the return of Elian Gonzalez, a Cuban boy caught in an international custody dispute.-Reuters