By Paula Jardine
OTTAWA, March 30 (Reuters) - Canadian Immigration Minister Lucienne Robillard, reacting to a report that Canada had balked at accepting Cuban dissidents who had engaged in violent acts in Cuba, denied on Monday that any final decision had been made.
Robillard said Canada had asked for more information about some of the 19 Cubans whom Ottawa had agreed to accept into exile in this country, subject to security and health checks.
"No final decision has been made yet," Robillard told reporters. "For each case we have to do medical and security checks. So we are still examining each file right now. We asked for more documents for some files and this is under review."
The prisoners were on a list of 200 submitted by Pope John Paul during a visit to the Communist state in January. The Pope appealed to Cuban President Fidel Castro for their release.
Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Monday that relatives of some of the prisoners said in Havana that Canada had decided to reject four or five of the prisoners.
Felicia Crespo, the 75-year-old mother of one of the Cuban prisoners, told the newspaper that her son had been rejected and would take her appeal for his freedom to the Pope's representative in Havana.
She said she had learned of the Canadian decision on Friday from her son when she visited him, Miguel Angel Fernandez Crespo, 32, who is serving a 15-year sentence after being convicted with others for trying to bomb a library.
"The Pope asked for them to be pardoned, and the Cuban government pardoned them so Canada could take them in. Now Canada is taking the ones it wants and it's leaving behind the ones it doesn't want," she was quoted as saying. Robillard said some might arrive in Canada before others.
"When we will be ready to accept some, perhaps they could come alone in advance. We are following that very closely but we have to be very sure that these people are admissible under our legislation," she said.
Eric Tetrault, a spokesman for Robillard, said a planeload of Cuban prisoners and their family members could arrive in Canada as early as Saturday.
18:39 03-30-98