Cuba - U.S.
Alan Gross to receive $3.2m from US
Payment to contractor
who was released after five years in Cuban jail is part of legal settlement
Wednesday 24 December 2014 04.06 GMT
Alan Gross on his
return to the US from Cuba. Photograph: Reuters
Alan Gross, the
contractor freed last week after five years in a Cuban jail, will receive $3.2m
from the US government as part of a settlement with his employer, the USAid
agency announced on Tuesday.
Gross was employed by
Maryland-based company DAI as part of a USAid-financed project in Cuba. DAI had
sought $7m for Gross, said a USAid spokesman.
“Our understanding is
that the money will go to Alan Gross as part of an agreement between the two
parties,” the USAid spokesman said. The money would be paid in the next few
days, he added.
DAI spokesman Steven
O’Connor said the company was “delighted to have Alan home and pleased to have
this legal matter settled”.
Gross had been jailed
in Cuba since December 2009 until his release last week as the governments of
the United States and Cuba restored diplomatic relations and swapped prisoners.
His detention was a
major obstacle to improvement in US-Cuban relations after more than 50 years of
hostility.
The settlement calls
for payment by USAid for unanticipated claims under a cost-reimbursement
contract, including claims related to Gross, USAid said in its statement.
Gross was sentenced to
15 years sentence for providing satellite internet equipment to Jewish Cubans
under a US program that Cuba views as subversive. Information is tightly
controlled on the Caribbean island, internet use is limited and visitors are
not allowed to carry satellite technology.
The United States says
Gross was merely helping Cubans get connected as part of a democracy-building
project.
No comments:
Post a Comment