Jewish community leaders visit jailed U.S. contractor Alan Gross
Updated 9:30 PM ET
HAVANA - Judy Gross, wife of jailed U.S. contractor Alan Gross has reacted sharply to photos and statements made today by the leader of Cuba's Jewish community, Adela Dworin.
"It was upsetting to see the photos of Alan from his visit with Adela Dworin," says Mrs. Gross in a statement released by the family law firm. "To those of us who knew him before his incarceration began more than two years ago, he is now frail, weak, and appears decades older than the 60-year old man that we last saw on American soil," it reads.
Dworin and the vice-president of Havana's Beth Shalom temple met this past Monday for two hours with Gross who is serving a 15-year-sentence in Cuba for smuggling in illegal communications equipment intended for use in a USAID pro-democracy program. The visit was permitted by Cuban authorities at her request.
Wednesday afternoon, Dworin released a press statement and two photos taken with her cell phone during that visit. She says Gross told her he'd gain some weight and was now 161 pounds. His family has been saying he lost 100 pounds since he was arrested two years ago.
Furthermore, according to Dworin, Gross described himself as being in "good physical shape", adding that his "blood pressure is normal". Dworin, who was under the impression that Gross suffered from diabetes apologized for bringing him chocolate Hanukkah gelt (candy) on the mistaken but, she says, Gross told her she was mistaken and thanked her for the gift.
Dworin and the vice-president of Havana's Beth Shalom temple met this past Monday for two hours with Gross who is serving a 15-year-sentence in Cuba for smuggling in illegal communications equipment intended for use in a USAID pro-democracy program. The visit was permitted by Cuban authorities at her request.
Gross's wife in her statement released Wednesday evening questions Dworin's description of her husband. "To understand our concern, all one needs to do is compare photos of Alan just before he went to Cuba in November 2009 to those being released now. While Alan always tries to put on a brave face when he is granted a visitor, unfortunately we cannot take comfort in Ms. Dworin's report that he is doing fine," reads her statement.
Cuba to release 2,900 prisoners - but not American Alan Gross
Church leader sees no change in Alan Gross case
Judy Gross writes that she speaks with her husband regularly "and I saw him as recently as a few weeks ago. I know that he is deteriorating more and more every day, both mentally and physically. He has told me he is feeling very hopeless, and recently, for the first time, he cried on the phone. His voice is monotone and he admits to worsening depression."
On the other hand, Dworin, who has visited Gross on two previous occasions, says she found him to be in better spirits than in the past.
She says, Gross told her he walks five miles a day inside the Havana military hospital where he is being held instead of a normal prison and that he exercises on the bars. "Look at my muscles," he told Dworin, according to a press release she issued this afternoon.
Speaking by phone with CBS, Dworin did indicate that Gross was disappointed not to have been included in a recent Cuban Government amnesty for nearly 3,000 prisoners but nevertheless expressed optimism about his situation.
He reportedly told her that even if he gets out of jail and is able to return home to his family, he would still like to return to Cuba. "He told me that he'd been in nearly the entire island except for the westernmost province Pinar del Rio and he'd like to go there someday," said Dworin.
In a phone conversation with CBS, Dworin said that, Gross told her he watched a Cuban TV news report on Hanukkah celebrations last Sunday in Havana and she took him some U.S. publications plus a letter from friends in Baltimore. Those celebrations were attended by Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon, Culture Minister Abel Prieto and Havana City historian Eusebio Leal, as well as the head of the Religious Affairs Department of the Communist Party Central Committee. And President Raul Castro sent Dworin a bouquet of red roses.
Observers say Havana is bending backwards to demonstrate that it supports Cuba's small Jewish community. The Gross family and the U.S. State Department have insisted that what Gross was doing in Cuba was helping the Jewish community have better connectivity with the world. Dworin and other Jewish activists here deny that this was the case.
Dworin claims Gross spoke in favor of the normalization of relations between Cuba and the U.S. and said, "I think I would be more useful there than here, not just because I miss my family but because, I could perhaps put in my grain of sand for the better understanding of what Cuba really represents."
His wife, nevertheless, writes, " I truly do not know how much longer he can take this ordeal, and we continue to beg the Cuban authorities to let Alan come home to us."