Cuba announced Saturday that jailed US contractor Alan Gross has been sentenced to 15 years prison following a trial in Havana. The Popular Provincial Tribunal found Gross responsible for "acts against the independence or territorial integrity," according to a statement read on state-run television news.
Gross, 61, was working under contract for the US State Department when he was arrested in late 2009 for distributing cell phones and computers to members of the island's struggling Jewish community. A two-day closed-door trial on Gross's case concluded March 5.
Gross was originally accused of developing a "subversive project" to bring down the Cuban government by targeting universities, religious centres and ethnic groups to create "underground communications networks designed to foment provocation's against the revolution."