The United States yesterday renewed its calls for the immediate release of US contractor Alan Gross, as he prepared to mark two years behind bars in Cuba on state security charges.
Gross was arrested December 3, 2009, for delivering laptops and communications equipment to Cuba’s small Jewish community under a State Department contract.
In March, he was found guilty of “acts against the independence or territorial integrity” of Cuba, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
“Tomorrow Alan Gross will begin his third year of unjustified imprisonment in Cuba,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in Washington.
“Mr. Gross is a 62-year-old husband, father, and dedicated professional with a long history of providing assistance and support to underserved communities in more than 50 countries,” Toner said.
“We continue to call on the Cuban government to release Alan Gross and return him to his family, where he belongs.”
White House spokesman Jay Carney called for Havana to free the American “immediately.”
“Our deepest sympathies are with Mr. Gross and his family and friends, who have suffered tremendously during this ordeal,” Carney added.
“It is past the time for Mr Gross to return home to his family where he belongs. Cuban authorities have failed in their efforts to use Mr Gross as a pawn to their own ends. They must heed the call of Mr Gross’s family and friends, the international community and the United States, to immediately release Mr Gross.”
The renewed calls from the US government come following appeals from US President Barack Obama, former president Jimmy Carter, Gross’s family members and others.
Gross was visited this week by Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the US National Council of Churches, who also met with President Raul Castro to press the case for a humanitarian release for the US citizen.
Kinnamon, who met the detainee for two hours, said he had lost weight and expressed concern over the health of Gross, who is confined in a military hospital in Havana.
A group of 19 US senators on Thursday expressed similar concerns.
“After two years in a Cuban prison, Mr. Gross and his family have paid an enormous personal price,” the Democratic and Republican lawmakers said in a letter to the head of the Cuban interests section in Washington, Jorge Bolano.
“Mr Gross has lost 100 pounds and suffers from numerous medical conditions,” they wrote. “Mr Gross’s daughter and mother are both fighting cancer, and his wife is struggling to make ends meet.”
On Friday, Kinnamon said that Gross, if freed, could become a “powerful spokesman” in favor of the normalization of ties between the United States and Cuba, which have not had formal diplomatic relations for decades.
