MIAMI, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A U.S. government subcontractor accused of handing out laptops to Cuban dissidents has been jailed in a high-security prison, a U.S. senator says.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the unnamed U.S. man was incarcerated in a high-security Cuban prison rather than a regular jail after being arrested by Cuban police at the Havana airport Dec. 5 as he was heading home, El Nuevo Herald reported Tuesday.
An unnamed congressional aide told the newspaper that State Department officials briefed Nelson and other members of Congress interested in Cuban affairs about the U.S. man's detention. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters Monday that U.S. diplomats in Havana have been unsuccessful in obtaining consular access to the man.
U.S. officials say the subcontractor was handing out laptop computers, cellphones and other communications equipment as part of a U.S. government program to support democracy in Cuba.
El Nuevo Herald said Cuba in 2003 sentenced 75 dissidents to long prison terms for allegedly receiving aid from Washington and has also detained several U.S. citizens over the years on spying charges.
