Case of American Jew jailed in Cuba back in US court
WASHINGTON - An attorney for a Maryland man who has spent more than four years imprisoned in Cuba will argue before a federal appeals court that he should be allowed to sue the US government.
An attorney for Alan Gross, who was working in Cuba on a government contract when he was arrested in 2009, was expected to appear Friday before a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A lower-court judge threw out the lawsuit against the government in 2013, saying federal law bars lawsuits against the government based on injuries suffered in foreign countries, but Gross' lawyers appealed.
Gross, 65, was detained while working to set up Internet access as a subcontractor for the US government's US Agency for International Development, which promotes democracy in Cuba. It was his fifth trip to Cuba to work with Jewish communities on setting up Internet access that bypassed local censorship. Cuba considers USAID's programs illegal attempts by the US to undermine its government, and Gross was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
