Russia and the U.S. have swapped prisoners, securing the discharge of former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed. Reed was jailed in 2020 on assault expenses stemming from a drunken night time out in Moscow the earlier 12 months. Russia’s Overseas Ministry stated he was launched after a “prolonged negotiation course of” in trade for Russian nationwide Konstantin Yaroshenko, who has been jailed for greater than a decade within the U.S. on drug smuggling expenses.
Reed’s household launched an announcement confirming his launch, saying their “prayers have been answered and Trevor is safely on his approach again to the US.”
The White Home launched an announcement through which President Joe Biden stated he had knowledgeable the household of Reed’s freedom.
“We welcome dwelling Trevor Reed and have fun his return to the household that missed him dearly,” Mr. Biden stated within the assertion. “I heard within the voices of Trevor’s dad and mom how a lot they’ve anxious about his well being and missed his presence. And I used to be delighted to have the ability to share with them the excellent news about Trevor’s freedom.”
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Mr. Biden thanked Particular Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens and U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan, amongst others, for his or her “tireless and devoted work” to safe Reed’s launch. The president stated the negotiations “required tough choices” that he did “not take flippantly,” and he vowed that his administration would maintain working to get one other former U.S. Marine, Paul Whelan, {and professional} basketball participant Brittney Griner out of Russian prisons, too.
Whelan has been jailed since 2018, serving a 16-year sentence on espionage expenses that the U.S. and his household say are fabricated. Griner has been held in Russia since mid-February on drug expenses.
A U.S. official informed CBS Information chief overseas affairs correspondent and “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan that the Wednesday prisoner swap was not any indication of broader diplomatic engagement with Russia amid the standoff over the warfare in Ukraine.
The Related Press stated Wednesday’s prisoner swap was carried out in a European nation, with flight monitoring companies displaying a Russian jail airplane touchdown in Turkey’s capital of Ankara earlier within the day. The AP stated the U.S. Bureau of Prisons had up to date its web site in a single day to replicate that Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who was convicted of smuggling cocaine into the U.S. in 2010 and sentenced to twenty years, was now not behind bars.
Yaroshenko’s lawyer Alexei Tarasov was quoted by Russia’s Interfax information company as saying that his shopper was “now heading dwelling.”
Reed was sentenced to 9 years in jail in 2020 after being convicted of assaulting two Russian law enforcement officials. He at all times maintained that he had no recollection of the incident and pleaded not responsible. The U.S. authorities had raised considerations in regards to the equity of his trial.
Solely two weeks in the past a Russian court docket dismissed Reed’s authorized enchantment in opposition to his conviction and jail sentence and despatched the case all the way down to a decrease court docket. The choice was lamented by U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan, who stated on the time that Reed “stays in jail for a criminal offense he did not commit.”
Reed’s household has voiced severe considerations for his heath, saying they consider he contracted tuberculosis in jail and that he was not receiving correct medical care regardless of Russia’s jail service saying earlier in April that he had been transferred to a jail hospital.
In an announcement launched on April 11, Reed’s dad and mom stated they’d managed to “re-establish oblique contact” with their son after not listening to from him for nearly every week.
