BREAKING: Cuba Releases Alan Gross

Published 17 December 2014 (43 minutes ago)

The move comes as U.S. sources say reforms to Cuba policy likely.

USAID contractor Alan Gross will be released from Cuba Wednesday, ten years before his sentence was due to end.

Other reports say three Cuban prisoners will be released from the U.S.

Raul Castro and Barack Obama are both due to make separate speeches on U.S.-Cuba relations Wednesday. Obama’s speech will address new steps in the relationship, according to U.S. officials.

teleSUR correspondent in Cuba, Fabiola Correa, reports that the Cuban press conference will take place at noon, local time.

Raul Castro will make an “important address about Cuba’s relations with the United States,” Cuban state newspaper Granma says.

Alan Gross was released Wednesday morning is on his way back to the United States.

«This morning, Alan Gross has departed Cuba on a US government plane bound for the United States,» an administration official said in a statement. «Mr. Gross was released on humanitarian grounds by the Cuban government at the request of the United States.»

Cuba arrested Gross, now 65, on Dec. 3, 2009, and later convicted the USAID subcontractor to 15 years in prison for trying to establish clandestine internet service.

Gross was subcontracted by private firm Development Alternatives, Inc., which was subcontracted by USAID to provide «humanitarian assistance.”