MOSCOW, December 3 (Sputnik) — Alan Gross, who is now 65, was arrested in Havana in 2009, and sentenced to 15 years for supposedly bringing in communications equipment as a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). He was bringing satellite phones and computer equipment to the Jewish community on the island. He was indicted with "destabilizing" and "subverting" the government, reports USA Today.
Cuba's President Raul Castro called him a spy, and Cuban officials said Gross was contracted to work for American intelligence services, although the charge was denied by Gross and the U.S. government, reported by NBC News.
Since then Gross has gone on hunger strikes, he has told people he's lost five teeth, 100 pounds and is losing sight in one eye. He's even stopped accepting visits from his wife and daughters.
On Wednesday, Judy Gross, made one more appeal on the fifth anniversary of his arrest. "Enough is enough," she said in a statement. "My husband has paid a terrible price for serving his country and community. Alan is resolved that he will not endure another year imprisoned in Cuba, and I am afraid that we are at the end. After five years of literally wasting away, Alan is done. It is time for President Obama to bring Alan back to the United States now; otherwise it will be too late."
The State Department called for the immediate release of Gross, calling his detention "unjustified imprisonment in difficult conditions,” reports NBC News.
The Cuban government on the other hand, has insisted that American authorities wrongfully imprisoned five of its citizens, known as "The Cuban Five." These men were imprisoned in U.S. federal court on espionage charges and have become national heroes in Cuba. Two of the men have completed their prison terms and have returned to Cuba. The other three remain in U.S. prisons, where one faces a life term, reports USA Today.
The State Department has claimed that it will not agree to the idea of a prisoner swap, an arrangement that Cuban authorities have floated in the past.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf has condemned the "difficult conditions" Gross is living under but did not explain how or when his release will be appealed.
With apparently no progress on his case, Gross has grown more desperate. In May, when Gross turned 65, he vowed that it would be the last birthday he spends in a Cuban jail "one way or the other," according to his lawyer, Scott Gilbert.
His wife and youngest daughter went to visit him in August and Gross told them that he could not take life in prison any longer. He told them goodbye and asked them not to come see him again. They haven't seen him since, reported by USA Today.
