US Jewish contractor loses $60m lawsuit over Cuba jail time

An American Jewish contractor freed from a Cuban jail after US President Barack Obama agreed a prisoner swap to secure his freedom, has lost a $60 million lawsuit against the US government.

Alan Gross, who was released in December after being caught illegally connecting the island’s Jewish community to the internet, had sued saying he was sent to Cuba without adequate support.

The US Supreme Court rejected his $60 million lawsuit, which alleges government negligence, after district courts also threw it out.

Gross will receive $3.2 million from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other government departments, with whom he worked before being sentenced to 15 years in jail for crimes against the state.