Sunday, March 13, 2011

ACN (Cuba): "Alan Gross Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison"

You may have seen this story as reported by Western News agencies. According to CNN:
American contractor Alan P. Gross has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for crimes against the Cuban state.

Gross, 61, was found guilty of working on a "subversive" U.S. project intended to undermine the Cuban government by distributing illegal satellite communications equipment, according to Cubadebate, a state-run website in Cuba.

The United States has said that Gross was helping the island's small Jewish community connect to the Internet. [...]
Here is the coverage from Cuba's ACN news agency:
The Courtroom for Crimes against State Security of the People’s Provincial Court of Havana sentenced US citizen Alan Phillip Gross on Friday to 15 years in prison for the crime of "Acts against the Independence or the Territorial Integrity of the State."

The Court, to make that decision, took into account the large amount of documentary evidence and those provided by witnesses and experts presented during the oral trial, particularly the ones by the prosecutor, which showed the direct participation of the US contractor in a subversive project of the US government to try to destroy the Revolution, by way of the use of info-communication systems out of the control of the authorities, in order to promote destabilizing plans against various social sectors.

During the hearing of the oral trial, the defendant admitted having been used and manipulated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), subordinate to the Department of State and which finances the DAI Contracting Company, on behalf of which Gross came to Cuba. [...]
Not that it would be a bad idea to "destroy the revolution."

Update: This appears to be North Korea's version of the same story:
The Cuban newspaper Granma on March 8 carried an article denouncing the U.S. cyber warfare against Cuba.

The paper disclosed the fact that the U.S. smuggled satellite antennas and other equipment into Cuba to have secret internet connections in a bid to spread false rumors, create social instability and bring Cuba to collapse.

Recalling that the U.S. smuggled latest programs into Cuba to form networks not subject to government control and establish a system whereby digitalized files are transmitted and received, the paper went on: The U.S. is leaving no means untried to intensify the anti-Cuba campaign.

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