http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000425/ts/elian_court_1.html

Tuesday April 25 8:28 PM ET

U.S. Appeals Court Bars Elian From Cuban Mission

MIAMI (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals judge on Tuesday barred Cuban castaway Elian Gonzalez from going to a Cuban diplomatic mission in the United States in response to concerns of his Miami relatives that he could end up beyond the reach of the U.S. courts.

Judge J.L. Edmondson of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta issued an order clarifying the injunction issued by the appellate court on April 19. The injunction barred Elian from leaving the United States pending appeal of a Miami federal court ruling that dismissed the relatives' bid to win an asylum hearing for the boy.

``Elian Gonzalez is enjoined from going to any place within the United States lying beyond the power and jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, including, but not limited to, any place that is or may be entitled to diplomatic immunity,'' Edmondson wrote.

The ruling marked the latest legal step in a fierce family feud over the 6-year-old, who was brought to Florida in November after surviving the sinking of a migrant smuggling boat in which his mother and 10 others died.

Elian was put in the temporary custody of a great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, who says Elian should not have to grow up in communist Cuba. His father, Cuban tourism worker Juan Miguel Gonzalez, has said he wants to take his son home.

Armed U.S. agents snatched Elian from Lazaro Gonzalez's Miami home in a predawn raid on Saturday. The boy was reunited several hours later with his father, who had traveled to Washington on April 6 to reclaim his son.

The raid set off a firestorm of controversy over the use of armed agents to resolve a custody fight. The Miami relatives had defied a government order to hand over the boy.

Relatives Worried About Diplomatic Immunity

Roger Bernstein, a lawyer for Lazaro Gonzalez, said the relatives filed a motion on Tuesday asking the court to ensure Elian was not taken into a Cuban diplomatic mission where he would be under the control of Cuban agents and beyond the reach of U.S. justice.

``One of our concerns was that Elian would be brought to a place in which Cuban diplomats could claim immunity,'' he said.

Edmondson's order also barred anyone else from taking Elian to a place with diplomatic immunity and ordered the U.S. government to take ``reasonable and lawful measures'' to prevent such action.

``We asked that any Cuban diplomat or agent of the Cuban government not have access to Elian because it defeats the spirit of the asylum claim,'' Bernstein said.

Edmondson told the Justice Department to respond to the motion by 4 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Wednesday.

The Miami relatives repeatedly have said Elian's father is being pressured by Cuban President Fidel Castro and they feared the 6-year-old would be similarly influenced. They have said the boy does not want to return to Cuba and applied for political asylum for him.

But a U.S. District Court judge backed a government decision that Elian's father speaks for him.

The motion also asked the appeals court to allow the Miami relatives and their lawyers access to Elian, who has been in seclusion with his father, stepmother and baby brother at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington since the Saturday raid. The judge's order did not address the request for access.

The family was taken from the base on Tuesday to an estate at Wye River, site of 1998 Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, an hour's drive east of Washington.

A Justice Department official said a site had been chosen where both sides of the divided family could be brought together. He said no Cuban official would be residing there.