Alan Phillip Gross (born 1949) is an American social worker and international development professional.[1] In December 2009 he was arrested while in Cuba as a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of a program funded under the 1996 Helms-Burton Act.[2] He was prosecuted in 2011 after being accused of crimes against the Cuban state for seeking to bring satellite phones and computer equipment to members of Cuba’s Jewish community without the permit required under Cuban law,[3] and is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba.[2]
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A native of Maryland,[4] Gross studied social work at the University of Maryland and the Virginia Commonwealth University. He had a long career as an international development worker who had been active in some 50 countries. In 2001, he founded Joint Business Development Center, a small company earning less than 70,000 dollars in 2009, which supports “Internet connectivity in locations where there [is] little or no access”, according to the New York Times.[5] Gross and his wife Judy lived in Potomac, a Washington, D.C. suburb. The couple has two daughters.[1]
Gross was working with Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), a contractor working with USAID who had won a 6 million dollar U.S. government contract for the program in which Gross was involved, a controversial “democracy-promotion program ... to provide communications equipment to break the Cuban government's ‘information blockade’”.[1] Gross received more than a half million dollars, despite the fact that he spoke little Spanish and had not worked in Cuba before.[6]
Shortly before his arrest, Gross visited Cuba several times on a tourist visa, according to American officials to deliver computer and satellite equipment to three Jewish community groups. In December 2009, according to Development Alternatives Inc., he was on a follow-up trip, researching how the groups were making use of the equipment he had previously distributed to them.[5] As reported by the Jewish Daily Forward, Cuba’s small Jewish community of less than 2,000 people who mainly live in Havana, enjoys religious freedom and has fairly good relations with the government under Raul Castro. They are also free to emigrate to Israel, with which Cuba has productive relations, although unofficially.[2]
USAID′s 20 million dollar Cuba program authorized by a law calling for regime change in Cuba has been criticized repeatedly in congressional reports as being wasteful and ineffective, and putting people in danger.[7] Funding was held up briefly in 2010 over concerns following Gross′ arrest.[6]
Alan Gross had previously set up satellite communications systems to circumvent state-controlled channels in Iraq and Afghanistan.[8]
Gross was arrested on December 3, 2009 upon leaving Cuba at the Havana Airport.[9] He was jailed at Villa Marista prison, a detention center.[10] According to classified U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks which show that the arrest came amid heightened tensions between Cuba and the U.S., Gross spent 25 days in jail before receiving his first visit from a U.S. diplomat, but was visited by a Cuban attorney earlier and was allowed to telephone his wife three days after his arrest on December 6 for the first time and again on December 23. During the one hour visit by the U.S. consul general in Havana on December 28, 2009, Gross stated that Cuban officials were “treating him ‘with respect’, though his interrogation had been ‘very intense at first’, lasting an average of two hours a day.” According to the cable, the cell Gross had to share with two other men had a TV and a fan.[9]
The attorney who visited Gross in jail, Armanda Nuria Piñero Sierra, was hired as Gross′ lawyer and handled his trial and appeals. She also represents the families of five Cubans held in U.S. prisons, after being convicted in 2001 on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage against U.S. military installations, leading to the immediate speculation after Gross′ arrest, that Cuba wanted to swap him for the five Cubans.[9] In October 2011, it was revealed that the U.S. State Department had offered to let one of them who had been released from prison in the U.S. on probation serve the remainder of his probation in Cuba, in exchange for Gross′ release.[11]
US Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said Gross′ treatment was an attempt by Cuba to get a 'concession'.[5] Many Jewish groups, including the Conference of Presidents of Major North American Organizations and the American Jewish Committee, protested against his detention.[12]
In January 2010, the Cuban National Assembly president, Ricardo Alarcón claimed Gross was “contracted to work for American intelligence services”, an allegation denied by both the U.S. government and Gross′s attorneys.[1] More than a year later, Gross was charged in February 2011, with “Acts against the Independence and Territorial Integrity of the State” (“Actos Contra la Independencia o la Integridad Territorial del Estado”), facing up to 20 years in prison.[13][14] His trial was set on March 4, 2011.[13]
On March 12, 2011, Gross was sentenced to 15 years in prison.[10][15] According to the Cuban News Agency, he had been part of a “subversive project of the U.S. government that aimed to destroy the Revolution through the use of communication systems out of the control of authorities”.[15] Gross′ wife attended the trial with her attorney. Three U.S. officials also attended as observers.[10]
Gross′ American attorney Peter J. Kahn said in a written statement: “The Gross family is devastated by the verdict and harsh sentence announced today by the Cuban authorities. Having already served a 15-month sentence in a Cuban prison, Alan and his family have paid an enormous personal price in the long-standing political feud between Cuba and the United States”. Kahn pledged to “continue to work with Alan's Cuban attorney in exploring any and all options available to him, including the possibility of an appeal”. He also called for Gross' immediate release on humanitarian grounds.[10]
U.S. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor responded to the ruling, saying that it “adds another injustice to Alan Gross's ordeal," and that “he has already spent too many days in detention and should not spend one more”, and asked for “the immediate release of Mr. Gross so that he can return home to his wife and family”.[10]
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that Gross had been “unjustly jailed for far too long... He needs to be able to leave Cuba and return home,” adding “this is a matter of great personal pain to his family and concern to the U.S. government”.[10]
Gross’s case was appealed to the Supreme Court of Cuba which affirmed the sentence in August, 2011.[16]