This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
A former U.S. Marine who is serving a nine-year prison term in Russia has ended a hunger strike that he began in late March and has been transferred to a prison medical facility, his lawyers and prison officials say.
The regional branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) in Mordovia, where Trevor Reed is imprisoned, told the Russian news agency Interfax on April 4 that Reed had ended his hunger strike on April 1 after prison officials granted his request to be transferred to a prison hospital.
Defense lawyers Sergei Nikitenkov and Viktoria Buklova confirmed that Reed had ended his hunger strike after being seen by doctors.
Reed began his protest on March 30, saying he had been denied necessary medical care.
The same day, Reed’s parents met in Washington with U.S. President Joe Biden to raise awareness of the case. Reed’s father, Joe Reed, told CNN that his son “has all the symptoms of active tuberculosis” and that Russian prison authorities had denied him needed medical treatment.
“He’s still coughing blood,” Joey Reed said. “And yet he’s receiving no treatment for it, except aspirin.”
Reed’s parents urged Russian officials to test their son for the disease.
Reed, a 30-year-old from Texas, was sentenced in 2020 after being convicted of assaulting two Russian police officers in 2019. The U.S. government and Reed denied the allegations and questioned the fairness of the proceedings.
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 both Whelan and Reed.
