TORONTO - Cuban officials have assured a 19-year-old Simcoe, Ont., man that a block on his passport will be lifted by Wednesday.
Cody LeCompte has been unable to leave Cuba since a car accident in late April.
Reached in Cuba on Tuesday, Gary Parmenter -- LeCompte's uncle -- said the family is "cautiously optimistic" they will return Friday.
"We've heard this before," Parmenter said over the phone. "Until I'm wheels-up at the airport, I'll take nothing for sure."
On Tuesday afternoon, the family was asked to go to a police station about 45 minutes from the seaside resort in Santa Lucia where they have been staying for the last three months.
With a lawyer and interpreter on hand, LeCompte was asked to sign a new document agreeing that he would return to Cuba for a trial.
Last week, the family posted bail and he also signed an agreement stating that he would return for a trial.
They were expecting to return home Tuesday. However, at the last minute the family was informed that more documents needed to be signed by various departments of the Cuban government.
Canada's Foreign Affairs department says the Canadian Ambassador to Cuba met with Cuban officials Tuesday to discuss the case.
The LeComptes are now hoping be on Friday, which is the next available flight.
LeCompte's struggle with Cuban law began three months ago, when the rental car he was driving was sideswiped by a pickup truck. His mother and uncle were passengers in the car, along with his uncle's Cuban fiancee.
Parmenter's fiancee was severely injured and needed an operation to remove part of her liver. She has since fully recovered.
The driver of the truck was not injured.
LeCompte's mother was later told that drivers must be 21 to rent a car, but the rental agency allowed her son to drive even though his licence showed him to be 19.
A few days later the family tried to catch a flight home, but LeCompte was told that he could not leave the country. In Cuba, accidents resulting in death or injury are treated as crimes. The onus is on the driver to prove innocence.
A government issued advisory warns Canadians against driving in Cuba.
"Regardless of the nature of the accident, it can take five months to a year for a case to go to trial," the advisory says. "In most cases, the driver will not be allowed to leave Cuba until the trial has taken place."
Since the accident, Danette LeCompte has spent more than $30,000 trying to get her son home.
The LeComptes' situation has received media attention across the country, and a Facebook group called Bring Cody LeCompte Home, has over 3,000 members.
Last week, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Peter Kent brought up LeCompte's case with Cuba's representative in Canada. Kent noted that cases like LeCompte's could affect Canadians perspective of Cuba as a tourist destination.
Aurel Braun, a professor of international law and political science at the University of Toronto, says Canada has respected Cuba's sovereignty in the case.
However, that sovereignty only goes so far -- and when the rights of a Canadian citizen are being violated, the government steps in.
And as a major democracy willing to co-operate with communist Cuba, Canada has a lot of leverage.
"They are aware of the fact that we are an important trading partner, they understand that a significant number of tourists come from Canada and their economy desperately needs Canadians," Braun said.
