The wife of an American subcontractor imprisoned in Cuba has urged the U.S. government to push for her husband’s freedom, according to NBC News.
Alan Gross, a subcontractor for a State Department agency, was imprisoned in 2009 for setting up Internet in Cuba.
Gross is serving a sentence of 15 years.
Reports NBC:
"If we can trade five members of the Taliban to bring home one American soldier, surely we can figure out a path forward to bring home one American citizen from a Cuban prison," Judy Gross said, nearly a month after American Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was released from captivity in Afghanistan thanks to a Guantanamo prisoner swap.
Judy Gross' Tuesday visit to the small Cuban prison cell where Alan Gross spends 23 hours a day came a week after his mother died of lung cancer. The Cuban government refused a request for a humanitarian furlough for Alan to see his mother one final time — her dying wish — and wouldn't allow him to attend her funeral last Friday.
"I am extremely worried that Alan is going to do something drastic now that his mother is gone," Judy Gross said. "My husband and I need President Obama to do everything in his power to end this nightmare and bring Alan home from Cuba now."