American contractor appeals 15-year sentence in Cuba

Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- An American contractor sentenced to 15 years in a Cuban prison for attempting to set up an illegal Internet network appealed to the country's highest court Friday.

Alan Gross, 62, was jailed in December 2009, when he was working as a subcontractor on a U.S. Agency for International Development project aimed at spreading democracy.

U.S. consular officials and Gross' Cuban attorney attended the hearing, which lasted less than two hours Friday morning in Havana.

Cuban officials say Gross smuggled satellite equipment into the country aimed at setting up an Internet network for dissidents.

Gross says he was trying to help connect the Jewish community to the Web.

"Friday's hearing affords Alan another opportunity to reiterate, through his Cuban counsel, that his actions on the island were never intended to be -- and in fact never were -- a threat to the Cuban government," Gross's U.S.-based attorney, Peter J. Kahn, said in a written statement.

The case chilled U.S.-Cuba relations after signs of thawing when President Barack Obama took office. The State Department has said no progress will be made until Gross is released.

Former President Jimmy Carter visited Cuba earlier this year and tried to secure the aid worker's release on humanitarian grounds, arguing that Gross' mother and daughter are battling cancer. But he went home empty-handed.

The appeals hearing is the final legal recourse for Gross.

According to Cuban state media, a decision will be announced "within days."

U.S. officials say they expect he will be found guilty, but once the trial is over it will clear the way for the government to consider releasing Gross on humanitarian grounds.