Cuba's case against Alan Gross (Updated)

Café Fuerte went to the trouble to obtain the Cuban court decision in the case of USAID contractor Alan Gross, who is now serving his third year of a 15-year sentence.

It’s an 18-page document that begins with his business address in Maryland and ends with a list of every single item that was in his possession, right down to his Scotiabank credit card. In between it describes his activities, and it makes reference to several volumes containing hundreds of numbered pages of evidence gathered against him, much of it obtained from the computers and flash drives that Gross carried.

It amounts to Cuba’s case against Gross, as accepted and summarized by the court in its decision to convict.

The document claims that Gross started his activities in Cuba in 2004 and was involved with organizations such as the Pan American Development Foundation, which were penetrated by Cuban intelligence and whose activities became the subjects of Cuban television shows.

Apparently, the evidence in the trial included Gross’ trip reports to his employer (the USAID contractor DAI) and much more. The court describes the defense attorney’s objection to the way in which information was downloaded from Gross’ flash drives when she was not present, and notes that Gross himself authenticated “the majority” of the downloaded documents and provided information about them. Gross apparently said that one document, entitled “How to communicate securely in repressive environments” was not his.

The document notes “the sworn statement of the wife of the accused, Judith Gross, of February 23 of this year, in which she explains the situation of her family and provides details on the presentation of a lawsuit against DAI.”

It cites testimony from a communications ministry official to the effect that Gross never applied for a permit “to establish satellite communications stations.”

It also cites a statement provided to the court by an attorney for DAI who declined to provide information in the investigation, citing a non-disclosure agreement.

When I read the whole thing, I’ll post more. Readers who plow through it are welcome to contribute. Café Fuerte’s story by Ivette Leyva is here. The sentencia itself, posted by Café Fuerte, is here (pdf).

(Image: Cuba’s customs declaration.)

Updates:

---See Along the Malecon for links with information on the Cuban intelligence agents who followed Gross' activities, and others'.

---A reader points out that I wrote that his I-pad was confiscated. My error. The document refers to ten I-pods.

---Credit where credit is due: A reader points out that if you click on the document's properties, it shows that it originated in the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.

---See the reader's comment on the “How to communicate securely in repressive environments” paper, which was apparently not written by Gross.