A federal judge declared Wednesday that an anti-Castro militant who allegedly was behind the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner will stay in jail pending trial on charges of lying on a naturalization application. Luis Posada Carriles, 78, a former CIA operative trained by the US for the failed anti-Castro Bay of Pigs invasion, snuck into the Miami area in 2005 and was subsequently arrested for immigration violations.

Carriles filed a habeas corpus petition for his release following a November ruling in immigration proceedings that he be deported by the beginning of February. New charges were brought against him in January when he was indicted for US naturalization fraud. In Wednesday's ruling, US District Judge Philip Martinez of the Western District of Texas struck down the petition for release because he no longer was in the custody of immigration authorities.

Carriles was due to be deported for sneaking into the US, but a US immigration judge delayed his deportation in 2005, determining that he could not be sent to Venezuela, where he is a naturalized citizen, or to Cuba, the country of his birth, for fears that he would be tortured. Carriles is wanted in both countries on terrorism charges, and Venezuela was particularly incensed at the denial of their extradition requests.