Future prospects for improving US-Cuba ties will be at stake when Cuba’s highest court hears an appeal today from jailed US aid contractor Alan Gross against his 15-year sentence for crimes against the state.
Gross, 62, was arrested in Havana in December 2009 while working on a secretive USAID-funded pro-democracy program that sought to establish an Internet platform in Cuba, where access to the Internet is tightly controlled.
His detention by Cuba, which accuses Washington of trying to subvert its socialist system by promoting new communications technologies on the island, put a brake on cautious moves by US President Barack Obama to foster a better relationship with Havana after decades of Cold War-era enmity.
Gross’ sentencing in March by Cuban judges to 15 years in prison for crimes against the state dealt a further blow to chances of a significant rapprochement. Washington condemned it as an “injustice” and US officials have made clear further moves to improve ties would require his immediate release.
The aid contractor denies his work in Cuba was hostile to the government there, saying he was only trying to improve Internet connectivity for the island’s small Jewish community.
“Friday’s hearing affords Alan another opportunity to reiterate, through his Cuban counsel, that his actions on the island were never intended to be — and in fact never were — a threat to the Cuban government,” Gross’ lawyer, Peter Kahn, said in statement.
Hopes for the American’s release have centered on his reported ill health — his wife Judy says he has lost 45kg in jail — and on the family’s direct appeal to Cuban President Raul Castro for a humanitarian pardon on the grounds that both his daughter and mother-in-law have been battling cancer.
Kahn said wife Judy Gross would be unable to attend today’s hearing in Havana as she was herself recuperating from surgery for an undisclosed ailment.
Cuban lawyers, who spoke with reporters on the condition they were not named, said the Cuban Supreme Court could throw out the lower court’s conviction of Gross and let him walk free. However, they believed it was more likely to uphold the verdict and, possibly, to reduce the sentence.
Its ruling on the appeal was not expected to come immediately and could even take weeks.
The US government, whose diplomats in Havana will attend the hearing, said it would continue to use “all diplomatic channels” to press for Gross’ release.
A number of high-profile US political figures have lobbied the Cuban government for Gross’s release, among them former US president Jimmy Carter, who visited the contractor in jail during a March trip to Cuba soon after his sentencing.
Obama had initially eased US travel restrictions to Cuba and allowed a free flow of remittances to the island as part of measures to increase contacts. However, more significant moves to relax long-running US economic sanctions against the island are unlikely without movement in the Gross case.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number