A U.S. Court overturned the conviction of espionage on five Cubans accused of spying, stating that because of the pervasive anti-Castro prejudice in South Florida, it was not possible for the "Cuban Five" to get a fair trial in Miami. This has followed the heels of the United Nations human rights body condemning the sentences as unusually harsh. Ricardo Alarcon, the speaker of the Cuban Parliament, has demanded that the Cuban Five be released pending a new trial, as there is no justification to keep them in prison now that the ruling is overturned. The Cuban government has spent a lot of time promoting the Cuban Five as heroes that were the victims of anti-Cuban hysteria and prejudice in Miami.