US announces Cuba property law despite EU warnings

WASHINGTON, Apr 17 (AFP): The United States said Wednesday that a long-delayed law would go into effect next month that allows lawsuits over property seized by Cuba and that it issue make no exemptions for angered Europeans.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the 1996 measure -- systematically delayed every six months by successive administrations -- would go into effect on May 2.

"Any person or company doing business in Cuba should heed this announcement," Pompeo told reporters.

Under the provision of the so-called Helms-Burton Act, any companies that operate in property seized by Cuba during Fidel Castro's 1959 communist revolution will be able to file lawsuits in US courts.

Pompeo called on all businesses that hold buildings in Cuba to "fully investigate whether they are stolen in service of a failed communist experiment."