The United States plans to indict Cuba’s Raúl Castro, a U.S. Justice Department official said Thursday night.
The timing of the potential indictment, which would have to be approved by a grand jury, was not immediately clear, but the official said it sounded imminent.
Potential charges against Cuba’s 94-year-old former president and brother Fidel are expected to focus on the downing of the plane, the official said on condition of anonymity.
CBS previously reported that the case is related to the fatal 1996 Cuban shooting down of planes operated by humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue.
Representatives of Cuba’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
A spokesman for the US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration has called Cuba’s current communist-run government corrupt and incompetent and is seeking to replace it. The latest move comes as President Donald Trump has increased pressure on Cuba, effectively imposing a blockade on the island by threatening sanctions on countries that supply it with fuel, sparking blackouts and dealing blows to its economy.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida is overseeing efforts to investigate potential criminal charges against high-ranking Cuban government officials.
Officials from both countries acknowledged earlier this year that they were in talks, but talks appeared to have broken down amid an ongoing US fuel embargo.
But on Thursday, the Cuban government confirmed that it had met with CIA chief John Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe told intelligence officials in Cuba that the U.S. was ready to get involved in economic security issues if Cuba made “fundamental changes,” a CIA official said.
