• Submitted by: manso
• Politics and Government
• 03 / 04 / 2011

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(AFP) – WASHINGTON — The United States said Thursday that it hopes Alan Gross, an American held in Cuba for more than a year, will be able to return home soon now that his trial on espionage charges is set to begin.

"The trial does begin tomorrow (Friday). And we hope it will be resolved so that Mr. Gross can return home to the United States. He's been in prison for too long," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.

Crowley said he expected that a US consular officer will be at the trial to monitor the proceeding.

Cuban prosecutors announced in early February that it would seek 20 years in prison for the 61-year-old businessman, who was arrested in December 2009 while working in Cuba as a State Department contractor.

His trial for "acts against the independence and territorial integrity of the state" is expected to last several days, and in Havana's diplomatic circles there is little doubt that the court will accede to the prosecution's demands.

Crowley has said he hopes Gross receives a fair trial, adding: "What he did is not a crime."

A spokesman for the US Interests Section in Havana told AFP that the case would be heard in "complete privacy."

Gross was arrested December 3, 2009 and accused of distributing "sophisticated communication media" to opponents of the country's 52-year-old communist government.

According to Washington, Gross was employed by a State Department contractor, Development Alternatives, that was providing computers and cellphones to Cuba's Jewish community to help it communicate with the outside world.

The arrest brought an immediate halt to an easing in tension between Cuba and the United States that followed Obama's election.

Source: www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/