WASHINGTON, USA (AP) — Forty-four senators have written to Cuba's president to call for the release of an American man imprisoned in Cuba for almost three years.

The one-page letter released today, is signed by 34 Democrats, nine Republicans and one independent. It says that the detention of Alan Gross is a major obstacle to improving relations between Cuba and the United States.

Gross was working as a US government contractor when he was arrested in 2009. The 63-year-old was sentenced to a 15-year prison term for crimes against the state after he brought restricted communications equipment to the communist island nation while on a democracy-building programme.

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