By Angus MacSwan
MIAMI, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Plaintiffs' lawyers presented their closing argument in a landmark lawsuit against the Cuban government and air force on Thursday, asking a Miami judge to award more than $79 million in damages to the families of three Cuban Americans shot down by a Cuban jet fighter.
Judge James Lawrence King's decision on whether Cuba is liable for the wrongful death of the three men, all U.S. citizens, over the Florida Straits in 1996 will set an important precedent, the lawyers said.
The civil suit is the first to go to trial under a 1996 anti-terrorism law that aims to extend U.S. jurisdiction beyond the country's borders for attacks on U.S. citizens.
Attorney Frank Angones said the victims' families' motives went far beyond a desire for financial compensation.
"They hope that this will deter other rogue and terrorist nations from ever doing this vile act again ... and that if they do they will pay,'' he said.
President Fidel Castro's government declined to defend itself at the trial, saying a U.S. court had no authority over it.
Armando Alejandre, 45, Carlos Alberto Costa, 29, and Mario de la Pena, 24, were shot down by a Cuban MiG jet on Feb. 24, 1996, as they flew in two Cessna planes of the Brothers to the Rescue exile organization. They were looking for refugees fleeing Cuba by sea.
A fourth flyer, Cuban exile Pablo Morales, was not a U.S. citizen, so he was ineligible for inclusion in the suit.
"This was clearly a brutal and premeditated act over international waters,'' Angones said.
He said that during the trail, testimony established that the attack amounted to an extrajudicial killing by agents of a foreign government deemed by the United States to sponsor terrorism and that it happened in neutral territory.
Attorney Aaron Podhurst asked for a total of $27,532,913 in compensatory and punitive damages for the wife and daughter of the Cuban-born Alejandre, both of whom are named Marlene.
He asked for $26,130,704 for Mirta Mendez, the mother of Costa, who was an employee of Miami International Airport whose ambition was to manage an airport. Podhurst also asked for $26,264,294 damages for Mario and Miriam de la Pena, whose son dreamed of becoming a commercial airline pilot.
"These (victims) were rare people who cared about their fellow man and woman,'' Podhurst said. "A widow, a daughter and two sets of parents must go home and every day cope with life. ... They are never free of this case.''
King set no date for delivering his verdict. Lawyers said the families would make no comment to the media until a decision was announced.
Outside court, Alejandre's father, who was not a party to the suit, told reporters: "We lost a son. How do you think we feel? We feel terrible. It is time for something to be done to eliminate all kinds of terrorist people, especially cowards like these.''
If King rules in the plaintiffs' favor, they can petition Congress and the U.S. government to pay the damages from Cuban assets frozen in the United States, which Podhurst said totaled "hundreds of millions'' of dollars.
Cuba says the planes were in Cuban airspace and had ignored warnings when they were shot down. It says planes of Brothers to the Rescue had made many incursions in the months before the incident, sometimes buzzing Havana and dropping anti-Castro propaganda.
The attack halted a tentative improvement in relations between Havana and Washington, which tightened its embargo on the Communist-ruled island after the shoot-down. The four victims are regarded as martyrs by Miami's large Cuban community.
01:01 11-21-97