Alan Gross

A US contractor who returned home last month after spending five years imprisoned in Cuba will have a prime viewing spot for President Barack Obama's State of the Union address: a seat near first lady Michelle Obama.

Alan Gross, a 65-year-old U.S. foreign aid worker freed from a Cuban prison on Wednesday, was arrested in Cuba in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years for importing banned technology and trying to establish clandestine Internet service for Cuban Jews.

A US contractor who returned home last month after spending five years imprisoned in Cuba will have a prime viewing spot for President Barack Obama's State of the Union address: a seat near first lady Michelle Obama.

Alan Gross, a 65-year-old U.S. foreign aid worker freed from a Cuban prison on Wednesday, was arrested in Cuba in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years for importing banned technology and trying to establish clandestine Internet service for Cuban Jews.