Houston ? A federal judge on Tuesday threw out an indictment accusing a Cuban militant of lying to immigration authorities, saying the government manipulated Luis Posada Carriles’ naturalization interview.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone said the interpretation of the April 2006 interview “is so inaccurate as to render it unreliable as evidence of defendant’s actual statement.”

Posada, a 79-year-old former CIA operative and fierce opponent of Fidel Castro, was scheduled to stand trial next week in Texas on immigration fraud charges.

He was accused of entering the U.S. illegally and was detained in May 2005. Authorities said he later lied about how he entered the country when he sought to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.