Wife seeks husband's release from prison

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- A U.S. government subcontractor may not survive 15 years in a Cuban prison and should be freed on humanitarian grounds, his wife said.

Judy Gross, who just returned from visiting her husband, Alan, in Cuba, said in a statement she was devastated by his appearance, Miami's El Nuevo Herald reported.

"Alan's health continues to deteriorate," Judy Gross said. "He has lost 105 pounds and developed degenerative arthritis and a mass behind his right shoulder blade."

Gross, 63, of Potomac, Md., was arrested in Havana in December 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for delivering sophisticated satellite phones to Cuban Jews on behalf of the U.S. government.

"I beg President Castro, as a husband and father himself, to put an end to our anguish and let Alan come home to his loving family, including his dying mother," Judy Gross said.

Her statement was accompanied by an announcement that international human rights attorney Jared Genser has taken her husband's case. The move signals a more aggressive legal and publicity campaign will be launched to win his release.