The wives of two Cuban nationals serving long prison sentences in America for defending their country against terrorist attack will today visit the Scottish Parliament to highlight their husbands� plight.

The wives of two Cuban nationals serving long prison sentences in America for defending their country against terrorist attack will today visit the Scottish Parliament to highlight their husbands' plight.

Ten years ago Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez were members of a group of men known as the "Miami Five" who were tried and found guilty of "acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government" and related charges.

The men, who were monitoring extreme right-wing paramilitary groups responsible for launching terrorist attacks against Cuba, are currently serving lengthy jail terms.

Neither women has been able to secure a visa from the US government and they have not seen their husbands for years.

Now Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez are in the UK to gain support for their campaign. Earlier this week, they were among a delegation that handed a petition to the US embassy in London calling for visitation rights for the wives of all five Cuban men.

Tony Woodley, joint general-secretary of the trade union Unite, said: "This case is a travesty of justice. Five men are languishing in jail for defending their country against terrorism and every day their families must serve cruel sentences of separation too.

"We call on the US authorities to uphold fundamental human rights. They should give visiting rights and let these families be united once again."

The five Cubans, who had been living in the United States, were arrested after they tipped off the US government about alleged acts of terrorism planned by exile groups who opposed the Cuban government - then headed by Fidel Castro.

Instead of investigating, the US authorities put them on trial. Since their court case, the men have been held in high-security prisons.

According to Amnesty International and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, it is the "spiteful and highly dubious way" the men were tried and convicted that the women plan to highlight when they meet MSPs.They will then take a petition signed by 10,000 people to the US Consulate in Edinburgh before holding a vigil outside.

"We have a very strong marriage and we never lose hope that we will be together again one day," said Mrs Salanueva, who has not seen her Chicago-born husband since she was deported from America in 2002 with her two young daughters.

"But for Gerardo Hernandez, who has not been allowed to see Adriana for 10 years, it is very, very hard. They have been robbed of a chance to have a family."

Hernandez, a qualified pilot, had infiltrated a US-based anti-Castro group believed to have links to the bombing of a Cubana Airlines flight.

When he learned of plans by the group to send a plane into Cuban airspace he warned the Castro government in Havana, which shot it down leaving four dead.

As a result, the US government also charged him with murder, but then offered him a deal if he confessed to a number of unspecified crimes.

It was his refusal, says his wife, that led to her being barred from entering the country to see him.