Lawyer for US man writes UN anti-torture expert

The six-page letter made public Sunday is addressed to U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Mendez. In it, a lawyer for former Maryland resident Alan Gross claims Cuba has not met its obligations under an anti-torture treaty it agreed to more than a decade ago.

Gross, 63, has lost more than 100 pounds while imprisoned, and earlier this year he developed a mass behind his right shoulder. Cuban doctors performed tests, but a U.S. doctor who reviewed them for Gross' family has said they were inadequate. Dr. Alan A. Cohen, a Maryland radiologist, said the mass must be assumed to be cancerous unless proved harmless.

"The lack of medical clarity given to Mr. Gross by the Cubans has been causing him severe mental anxiety for six months and counting," wrote Gross' Washington-based lawyer Jared Genser. "As time goes on, and depending on the severity of his illness, the denial of medical care will surely amount to torture."

Genser attached to his letter answers to a U.N. form questionnaire for people alleging torture. In it, he wrote the torture occurred from May 2012 to the present — the time that Gross has had the mass on his shoulder.

A senior Cuban diplomat, Foreign Ministry official Josefina Vidal, said in September that Gross' health "continues to be normal and he exercises regularly."