US has visited man arrested by Cuba as a 'spy'

US has visited man arrested by Cuba as a 'spy'
Published on Thursday, June 3, 2010

WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) -- US authorities have been able to visit on five
occasions the American contractor arrested in Cuba in December whom
Havana claims is a spy, despite a US denial, a State Department
spokesman said on Wednesday.

"We have been granted access to Alan Gross in Cuba five times, the most
recent consular access being on May 25th," spokesman Philip Crowley told
reporters.

"And we continue to ask that Mr Gross be released immediately, on
humanitarian grounds, and be allowed to return to his family," the US
spokesman said.

Gross worked for an NGO contracted by the State Department to supply
computer and communications material to civil society groups on the
island, according to the United States.

Cuba insists however he is a spy who had sophisticated communications
equipment for dissidents in the Americas' only one-party Communist regime.

The US company that employed the contractor, Development Alternatives
Inc. (DAI), also denied the espionage charges.

Gross was arrested December 5, reportedly while distributing cell
phones, laptops and other communications equipment.

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