Former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, who’s serving a nine-year jail sentence in Russia, has ended a starvation strike and been transferred to a jail medical facility, his representatives and jail officers mentioned Monday. As CBS Information reported, Reed started a starvation strike in late March to protest the situations of his detention.
The Federal Penitentiary Service for the Mordovia area, the place the jail is positioned, mentioned Monday that Reed had ended his starvation strike a number of days earlier, after jail officers granted his request to be transferred for medical care. The service mentioned he was receiving medical therapy.
His dad and mom beforehand informed CBS Information that they suspected their son was affected by “acute tuberculosis,” in addition to an damage to a rib they mentioned he sustained after one thing fell on him.
“Reed was in touch with a tuberculosis affected person and demanded a well being test, which he was given after the starvation strike,” Reed’s Russia-based legal professionals mentioned, in response to Interfax information company. “Trevor’s well being requires a radical test and respective medical measures.”
The Reed household’s consultant within the U.S., Jonathan Franks, nonetheless, denied that the jailed American was getting any medical assist.
“Trevor has been to the ‘jail hospital’ many instances. He has by no means acquired any actual medical care,” he mentioned in a tweet. “The Russian statements final week about Trevor having acquired continuous medical care and repeated [tuberculosis] assessments are nonsense.”
Reed, a local of Texas, was sentenced in 2020 after being convicted of assaulting two Russian cops in 2019 on a drunken evening out. He mentioned he had no recollection of the incident and pleaded not responsible. U.S. officers questioned the equity of the trial. They alleged that Russia might have handed him one of many harshest sentences ever for the cost so as to use him as a political pawn amid deteriorating relations with the U.S.
Reed’s household met President Joe Biden final week after protesting exterior the White Home in hope of bringing officers’ consideration to their son’s case.
Joey and Paula Reed informed CBS Information later that they weren’t anticipating to talk to the president that day, however had been capable of focus on Trevor’s case, his well being, and the rumors of a possible prisoner swap for about 40 minutes.
President Biden promised to work to finish the “nightmare” of his detention, the White Home mentioned on Thursday.
Reed had beforehand gone on a two-week-long starvation strike in November 2021, which he mentioned he held due to situations together with “being repeatedly positioned in a punitive isolation ward,” his legal professionals mentioned on the time.
U.S. State Division spokesperson Ned Worth beforehand mentioned U.S. diplomats had been being denied entry to Reed and to Paul Whelan, one other former American Marine who’s serving time in Russia on espionage fees that Washington says are fabricated.
The third high-profile U.S. citizen presently held in Russia is skilled basketball participant Brittney Griner, who was detained in Moscow’s airport in mid-February on fees of attempting to deliver vape cartridges that contained hashish oil in her baggage. These fees carry a most penalty of 10 years in jail, however she has not but been convicted.
