Cuba releases American aid worker

December 18, 2014 01:42

An American aid worker, who had spent over five years in jail in Cuba on charges of spying, was released today as part of a prisoner swap deal between the two countries as the White House announced talks with Havana to normalize diplomatic relations with the Communist state.

Alan Gross was released on humanitarian grounds by the Cuban government at the behest of the United States.

"This morning, Alan Gross has departed Cuba on a US government plane bound for the United States. Gross was released on humanitarian grounds by the Cuban government at the request of the United States," a senior administrative official said.

"I'm overjoyed to welcome Alan Gross home after five long years in a Cuban prison. Alan's supposed crime was that he provided Cuba's small Jewish community with computer equipment to help them access the internet," said Senator Dick Durbin, who met Gross in prison in 2012 and again earlier this year.

"Opening the door with Cuba for trade, travel, and the exchange of ideas will create a force for positive change in Cuba that more than 50 years of our current policy of exclusion could not achieve," Durbin said.

"He committed no crime and was simply working to provide internet access to Cuba's small Jewish community. His imprisonment was cruel and arbitrary, but consistent with the behaviour of the Cuban regime," he said.

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