HAVANA - The wife of a U.S. contractor jailed in Havana denied Cuban allegations he was working for U.S. espionage services and said she hopes his case will be resolved at U.S.-Cuba migration talks on Friday.
In her first extensive comments since his December 4 detention, Judy Gross told Reuters via email on Thursday that husband Alan Gross has "never been involved in any way with any intelligence agency whatsoever."
Cuban officials including President Raul Castro have accused him of illegally providing satellite communications gear to dissidents and suggested he may be a U.S. spy.
But his wife said he is simply a professional do-gooder who works on development projects in emerging countries.
"I can categorically deny that allegation. Anyone who knows Alan at all knows that his work around the world is humanitarian in nature. He loves to help people," she said.
Judy Gross said the ordeal since he was nabbed at Havana airport has taken a heavy toll on her family and she would like for U.S. and Cuban negotiators to end it when they meet in the Cuban capital to discuss migration issues.
"I hope that the U.S. and Cuban governments do everything in their power to resolve Alan's case during their talks this week," said Gross, a psychotherapist at a Washington-area hospital.
U.S. diplomats have said Gross could be discussed at Friday's meeting because talks with Cuba usually are wide-ranging, but a U.S. State Department statement issued on Wednesday said only that they "will focus on how best to promote safe, legal, and orderly migration" between the two countries.
Alan Gross, 60, is currently in Havana's Villa Marista prison, which is reserved for suspects in cases viewed as matters of state security.
Raul Castro outlined the case against him in a December speech when he said Cuba had detained "the U.S. citizen euphemistically labeled as a government contractor" for distributing "sophisticated methods of satellite communication to members of the civil society they (the United States) hope to form against our people."
His activities showed that longstanding U.S. attempts to subvert Cuba's communist government continue under President Barack Obama, despite Obama's stated intent to improve hostile U.S. Cuba relations, Castro said.
The president of Cuba's National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, said Gross was hired to "work for American secret services."
Despite the accusations, Cuban officials say he has not yet been charged with a crime and the case is under investigation.
The State Department and Gross' employer, Development Alternatives Inc. in Maryland, have said he was not a spy.
In a December statement, Development Alternatives president James Boomgard said Gross was in Cuba under a U.S. Agency for International Development program to "strengthen civil society in support of just and democratic governance in Cuba."
He acknowledged Gross distributed cell phones and laptops in Cuba, but not satellite equipment. Providing the latter could bring a stiff prison sentence because Cuba, fearful it could be used by government opponents, restricts its use.
According to a fact sheet accompanying his wife's comments, Gross was in Cuba helping the island's "tiny Jewish community set up an Intranet so that they could communicate amongst themselves and with other Jewish communities abroad, and providing them the ability to access the Internet."
She said she has spoken with him in three brief phone calls and that "he is doing his best to remain strong" but is worried about his two daughters and his 86-year-old mother, who has fallen ill since the ordeal began.
U.S. diplomats in Havana say the Cubans have barely spoken with them about the case and made no demands. They have been allowed to visit Alan Gross twice in jail.
Some U.S. analysts believe the Cubans detained Gross to underscore their unhappiness that little has changed under Obama, who has taken only modest steps to improve U.S.-Cuba relations. Others accuse Cuban leaders of using the case to stop a thaw in ties with Washington frozen since the Cold War.
Whatever the reason, Judy Gross wants the nightmare over and her husband back.
"I hope and pray that Alan will be freed soon. He has done nothing wrong," she said.
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