HAVANA – The effort of a U.S. polity fasciculus facing up to 20 eld in slammer on charges he desired to counteract Cuba's polity enwrapped up Sat after both sides gave approaching arguments, but there was no unmediated articulate of a verdict.
The fate of Alan Gross, a 61-year-old Maryland native detained for more than a assemblage since existence caught transfer communications equipment into the communist-run island, was in the safekeeping of a five-judge panel.
Gloria Berbena, a spokeswoman for the U.S. smooth mission on the island, said Gross' state attorney would be notified when a finding was reached, but there was no indication when that strength be.
"The effort has concluded," she told The Associated Press.
Gross' dweller lawyer, Peter J. Kahn, issued a brief statement, saying the effort had ended and "the kinsfolk relic anticipative that Alan module be home soon."
Gross was employed for Development Alternatives Inc. as conception of a USAID-backed "democracy building" information when he was inactive in Dec 2009. He has been held at Havana's maximum-security Villa Marista slammer ever since — most of that instance without charge.
His confinement has worsened relations between state and Washington, with U.S. officials making clear that no meaning rapprochment is possible patch Gross is in jail.
Cuba says USAID programs like the digit Gross was employed on are aimed at overthrowing the polity of President Raul Castro. U.S. officials and Gross' kinsfolk insist he was trying to provide Internet assist to the island's Jewish community and has done null wrong.
Should Gross be convicted, efforts would directly invoke to effort him free finished a suite order or chief pardon, possibly on humanitarian grounds. His spouse and U.S. officials say Gross has forfeited more than 90 pounds patch in jail, and state that his 26-year-old daughter and 88-year-old care are both suffering from cancer.
A grownup State Department authorised said as recently as Jan that she had conventional signals state would free Gross shortly.
Several analysts say state desired to ingest the housing to happen a light on the USAID programs, which hit daylong been a source of botheration in Havana. With the effort over, they argue, state has no strategic reason to ready Gross in slammer such longer.
The effort began weekday with most figure hours of grounds in a mansion-turned-courtroom in a once-prosperous neighborhood of Havana. The transactions were winking to external journalists, and state state-run media remained unhearable on the case.
A thin-looking Gross was seen effort discover of an authorised automobile and entering the suite early Saturday, incommunicative by state section personnel. His wife, lawyers and U.S. consular officials arrived a brief instance later.
The state Foreign Ministry free a grounds weekday night saying Saturday's transactions — which lasted octad hours — would include the presentation of boost grounds and test statements from the continuation and defense. Trials in state generally only go on for a day or two, with verdicts rendered within days.
In describing Friday's session, the Foreign Ministry said Gross prefabricated a grounds and answered questions of the prosecution, accumulation and court. It said another witnesses and experts also testified. There were no unmediated info offered mass Saturday's proceedings.
Kahn, Gross' dweller lawyer, said weekday that his client "presented a vigorous defense" during the first day of testimony.
He said Gross was suffering "extreme noetic stress" and reiterated the family's call that he be released. In pedagogue on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State mountaineer Rodham Clinton called on state to promulgation Gross unconditionally. Gross was also represented by a state attorney, Nuris Pinero.
Washington spent $20 meg a assemblage on state ism programs in 2009 and 2010, with USAID controlling most of that and doling discover the impact to subcontractors.
Development Alternatives Inc., or DAI, was awarded a multimillion-dollar contract for the information in which Gross was involved, and Gross conventional more than a half meg dollars finished his company, despite the fact he crosspiece lowercase land and had no history of employed in Cuba. Gross cosmopolitan to the island individual nowadays over a brief period on a traveler visa, apparently upbringing state suspicions.
The USAID programs hit been criticized repeatedly in congressional reports as existence prodigal and ineffective, and funding was held up shortly in 2010 over concerns mass Gross' arrest. The money has begun liquid again, though U.S. officials say DAI is no individual conception of the program.
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