Juan O. Tamayo on the announcement that the Cuban dictatorship will seek a 20-year prison sentence for American aid worker and hostage of the Castro regime, Alan Gross.

Havana vs. Gross moves toward a trial

Cuba announced that it is pursuing a 20-year sentence against a U.S. contractor who has been jailed since December 2009.

A lawyer for a U.S. government subcontractor jailed in Havana for 14 months praised an announcement Friday that he will soon be brought to trial -- even though it said that prosecutors will ask for a 20-year sentence.

Alan Gross' trial date ``will be fixed shortly,'' said a Cuban government note published on the Web page of the Granma newspaper. Prosecutors will seek the long sentence on a charge of acting against ``the independence or territorial integrity of the State.''

The incarceration of Gross without charges since Dec. 3, 2009, had become a stumbling point in the Obama administration's efforts to improve relations with Cuba.

``We deplore the Cuban government's announcement that Cuban prosecutors intend to seek a 20-year sentence against Mr. Gross,'' said State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley. ``He should be home with his family now.''

But there have been hints that the case of Gross, a 61-year-old resident of Potomac, Md., is moving toward a resolution that would not include such a long sentence.

A senior State Department official told journalists in Havana Jan. 13 that Washington was ``cautiously optimistic'' on the Gross case ``because of things we hear,'' according to an Associated Press report.

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