Sep 4, 2011 9:07am
(NECN/CNN: Jill Dougherty)
The wife of an American contractor imprisoned in Cuba is worried she'll
never see her husband alive again.
Judy Gross last saw her husband, Alan, in a Cuban court room nearly six
months ago. She says that her spouse of 41 years has gone from a
vigorous 62-year-old to a gaunt, pale old man.
"Very very concerned [about his health]. He's so frail, now he has lost
over a hundred pounds and when I saw him I could see his bones sticking
out."
Alan Gross is an international development worker. The State Department
says that while in Cuba, he was providing internet equipment to the
island's Jewish community.
A Cuban court found him guilty of trying to subvert the Cuban government
and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
Judy read a statement that her husband wrote, that reads: "I respect the
sovereignty of Cuba. I have learned from my parents and through
experience that respect is something that one must have, in order to
receive."
There were times that Judy Gross had hoped music would help her husband
cope with the ordeal. She said he would play his guitar while in prison.
In early August, the Cuban court turned down Alan's last appeal. Judy
has asked President Raul Castro and the Cuban government to release him
on humanitarian grounds.
"One of my biggest fears is I'm going to get a call from my attorney one
day saying Alan had a heart attack or something happened to him, I don't
know if I'll ever see him again, I don't know if he'll step foot on US
soil."
Alan Gross' imprisonment is affecting not only his family, it is
affecting relations between the U.S. And Cuba, which, until now, have
been improving. The State Department says his case is a major impediment
to that improvement going forward.
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