(WASHINGTON, D.C.), – Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, hailed Wednesday’s federal court judgment ordering the Republic of Cuba to pay $1.75 million in damages to Judicial Watch client José Basulto for an attack on him by Cuban MiGs.

Mr. Basulto is president of Brothers to the Rescue, a U.S. humanitarian group that promotes and supports the efforts of the Cuban people to free themselves from that country’s oppressive dictatorship and that conducted by plane search-and-rescue missions for Cubans attempting to escape to the United States by boat.  The organization has helped save more than 30,000 people since its founding in 1991.

Judicial Watch sued the Cuban government on behalf of Mr. Basulto for the Feb. 24, 1996, attack by Cuban Air Force fighter jets on three Brothers to the Rescue planes – one flown by Mr. Basulto.  The planes, two of which were shot down, were flying in international airspace over the Straits of Florida.  Four Brothers to the Rescue members – Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario De La Pena, Carlos Costa and Pablo Morales – were killed in the attack.  The MiGs were under direct orders from Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who told CBS News’ Dan Rather in a Sept. 3, 1996, interview, “In fact they had the authority to do it, and I assume the responsibility.”

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida ordered the Cuban government to pay Mr. Basulto $1.75 million in compensatory damages for the Cuban Air Force’s assault against him.  (The Cuban government has defaulted in other lawsuits, resulting in a $187 million judgment for the families of three of the four fliers who were killed by the MiGs’ attack.)

“This is truly a moral victory for the Cuban cause and for all the Cuban people.  I am very happy today,” said Mr. Basulto.

“This is a significant victory for José against the murderous Castro regime,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “Mr. Basulto is a true hero who has won justice not only for his late Brothers to the Rescue pilots but for the Cuban people still held captive by the brutal dictator, Castro.”