Elian drama gives way to legal nuts and bolts

ATLANTA -- After the drama of the past six months, the Elian Gonzalez saga is about to take a less emotional turn as three federal appeals judges prepare to hear arguments over whether the 6-year-old Cuban boy's case merits a political asylum hearing.

Rather than playing on the emotions that have led to massive protests in two countries since Elian was discovered floating off the Florida coast on Thanksgiving, specialists said the lawyers appearing before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday will be arguing the nuts and bolts of law.

"Outsiders often find these arguments very dry," said Richard Freer, a law professor at Emory University. "There's no jury so there's no playing of the violin; there's nobody to make cry. That doesn't mean there's no emotional appeal sometimes, but this is all about what the law is."

The judges are under no deadline for ruling in the legal battle pitting the boy's Miami relatives against his Cuban father and the US government. But given the intense news coverage, court officials expect the 136-seat courtroom to be filled.

Elian and his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, are not required to attend, and it is unlikely they will. Three of the boy's Miami relatives, his cousin Marisleysis Gonzalez, 21, and great-uncles Lazaro and Delfin Gonzalez, plan to be in the courtroom but won't be allowed to speak during the hearing.

"They feel that they need to be there," said Armando Gutierrez, a spokesman for the Miami relatives. "This is a very important point for them. The government has not listened. Maybe this court will."

The Miami relatives appealed after a lower court threw out a request for political asylum signed by Elian and filed by Lazaro Gonzalez. Juan Miguel Gonzalez has said he wants to take his son home to Cuba, and the US government has backed his right to do so.

The government has agreed to give five of its allotted 20 minutes to Gregory Craig, the lawyer for Juan Miguel Gonzalez, to argue that the father should be able to represent Elian if an asylum hearing is granted. The remaining 15 minutes will be used by government lawyers arguing that the 6-year-old is too young to apply for asylum without an adult acting in his best interest, and that that adult is his father, not his Miami relatives.

A US district judge in Miami had dismissed the asylum petition because of the boy's age. But the 11th Circuit Court, in agreeing to hear the appeal, said laws passed by Congress say any alien can apply for US asylum.

"It's a crucial moment for Elian Gonzalez and any others to have a voice when asking for political asylum," said Ramon Saul Sanchez, a Cuban-American community leader in Miami. "Everybody is looking at Atlanta as a decisive moment."

Sanchez said some Cuban-Americans in Miami had talked of traveling to Atlanta to demonstrate outside the courthouse the day of the hearing.

"I have discouraged that because we don't want to look like we are putting any type of pressure on the court," he said.

While the hearing is expected to take only 40 minutes, a ruling could take several weeks.

The court has ordered that Elian remain in the United States until the judges rule on his appeal. Since federal agents removed him from his great-uncle's Miami home April 22, Elian has been staying with his father, stepmother and 6-month-old half-brother at a secluded plantation in Maryland.