A Cuban intelligence officer convicted of spying in the United States was released from a federal prison on Thursday after serving around 15 years.
Fernando Gonzalez, 50, a member of the so-called Cuban Five, is expected to return to Cuba in a few days, the Spanish-language El Nuevo Herald reported.
Gonzalez and fellow members of the spy ring -- that was also known as the Miami Five -- were arrested in 1998. The Cuban government eventually acknowledged that they targeted anti-Cuban government exile groups in the United States but denied they spied on American interests. All five were convicted of spying on U.S. military installations.
One member of the group, Gerardo Hernandez, was charged with conspiracy to murder after he gathered information on Brothers to the Rescue, a Cuban exile group that dropped anti-government leaflets on Cuba. Four members of Brothers to the Rescue died in 1996 after their two planes were shot down by the Cuban air force. Hernandez was handed a double life sentence plus 15 years.
Rene Gonzalez, another member of the jailed group, was released in 2011. Ramon Labanino and Antonio Guerrero remain in prison.
F. Brinley Bruton and Mary Murray of NBC News contributed to this report.
