Cuba’s Granma newspaper says Luis Posada Carriles’ lawyers are trying to use a legal loophole to prevent the court from hearing key evidence in his case.

Posada, the alleged mastermind of both the 1976 bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455 and also the 1997 Havana hotel bombing campaign, is scheduled to go on trial at the Federal Court in El Paso, Texas, in January 2011 on immigration-related charges.

Bombed Aché disco in Havana.

He’s accused of lying in his 2005 application for asylum in the U.S. when he claimed he wasn’t involved in the hotel bombing campaign. Those attacks resulted in the death of an Italian-Canadian businessman and injuries to dozens of others.

Prosecutors had intended to use evidence originally gathered in Cuba in connection with the attacks as part of its case but the defence is now arguing that material should be excluded because an earlier court order required such evidence be turned over to the court before December 1, 2009.

The defence claims it won’t have time to consider that evidence before the January trial.

Ironically, Posada is not charged with organizing the bombing campaign—a terrorist act—but merely of lying about his involvement—a lesser charge.