This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed has launched a second hunger strike at the Russian prison where he is serving a nine-year sentence to protest being put in solitary confinement and poor medical care as his state of health deteriorates.
Attorney Sergei Nikitenkov confirmed that his client launched a new hunger strike after Reed’s family said they suspected he may have contracted tuberculosis after being exposed to an infected inmate.
Reed was taken to a prison hospital for 10 days, but his parents said the facility provided no “meaningful medical care,” failed to administer a tuberculosis test, and failed to take a proper X-ray of his lungs.
The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) has not commented on Reed’s hunger strike.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow is pressing for consular access to Reed and other citizens detained in Russia, a State Department spokesperson said.
“We are concerned by reports that Trevor Reed has begun a hunger strike to protest his conditions. We call on Russian officials to provide adequate medical care immediately,” the spokesperson said, according to Reuters.
Reed, who is from Texas, was sentenced in 2020 after being arrested and charged with assaulting two Russian police officers in 2019. The U.S. government and Reed deny the allegations and questioned the fairness of the judicial proceedings.
He is being held in a prison in Mordovia, a region about 350 kilometers east of Moscow with a long reputation for being the location of Russia’s toughest prisons, including Soviet-era labor camps for political prisoners.
In November 2021, Reed went on a hunger strike for an unspecified period of time to protest violations of his rights, including his “illegal” placement in solitary confinement.
Reed is one of several U.S. citizens to face trial in Russia in recent years on charges that their families, supporters, and in some cases the U.S. government, have said appear trumped up.
Another former U.S. Marine, Paul Whelan, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in May 2020 on espionage charges condemned by the United States as a “mockery of justice.”
Whelan, who like Reed maintains his innocence, is also currently serving his sentence in a prison in Mordovia.
The United States has been pushing Russia to release Whelan and Reed.
