(CNN) -- A jailed American contractor said Friday he feels like a "hostage," in Cuba, where he is serving a 15-year prison sentence on charges of subversion. Alan Gross was arrested in 2009 while working as a subcontractor on a U.S. Agency for International Development project aimed at spreading democracy. Gross' family and attorneys say that he traveled to Cuba to help link the country's small Jewish community to the Internet. But Cuban authorities say Gross imported sensitive communications equipment to connect dissidents. "I feel like I'm a hostage," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, speaking by phone from the Carlos J. Finlay Military Hospital in Havana.
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Alan Gross was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in prison
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He describes the charges against him as "laughable"
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The Cuban government hasn't yet responded to his request to visit his dying mother
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His case sank U.S.-Cuba relations to a new low
Last year, Cuba's highest court upheld the 15-year sentence imposed on Gross for committing crimes against the security of the state -- charges @placeholder described as "laughable."