Cuba: Release of jailed American hangs in the balance

The Supreme Court of Cuba held a hearing on July 22 in the case of Alan Gross, a US citizen who was tried and convicted to 15 years imprisonment for allegedly seeking to subvert the island republic’s communist government.  The 61 year-old Marylander had been employed by the US Agency for International Development and contracted to update Internet access for the Jewish community of Cuba.  He was sentenced in a Cuban court in March 2011 despite strong condemnation by the US government and denials that he was engaged in illegal activity.

In the Cuban supreme tribunal chambers, judges heard arguments by Gross and his Cuban lawyer Nuris Piñ eiro.  According to anCuban government website, the court will make its decision known within a few days.  Attorney Piñeiro presented Gross’s “inconformity of the accused with the decision of the lower court,” which convicted him on charges that he had engaged in “acts against the independence or integrity of the State.”  During the March 12 sentencing, members of the international press were barred from the court chambers.  Gross was arrested in 2009 and charged with allegedly seeking to create a “subversive” and clandestine computer system to “destroy the Revolution.”

Gross has now exhausted the last judicial recourse in his case.  If the supreme court decides to sustain the lower court’s sentence, Gross can only appeal for clemency on the part of rulers Fidel Castro or Raul Castro.

Gross worked for a Bethesda MD firm, Development Alternatives, which had received $6 million U.S. government funds ostensibly to promote democracy in Cuba.  He had distributed computer and satellite phone equipment to members of the island’s Jewish community. While the program had been intended by the Bush administration to foster democratic change in Cuba, some analysts saw it as poorly conceived.  Gross is apparently non-fluent in Spanish, even while he has experience in development projects.  His family said that he was unaware of the risks of working on the island and are now appealing for his release on humanitarian grounds, while saying that he has lost 90 pounds and suffered other health problems.

While U.S. diplomats have warned Cuba that bilateral relations will not improve as long as Gross is detained, the case has not deterred the Obama administration from loosening travel restrictions to the island and thereby contribute to democratization in a non-clandestine manner. Some observers note that Cuba has little to gain from keeping Gross in prison, increasing the likelihood of his discharge.