“On April 27, after a long process of negotiation, Trevor Reed was exchanged for the Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenkosentenced to 20 years in prison by a US court in 2010,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram.
The president of United States, Joe Bidensaid Wednesday that negotiations to secure the ex-marine’s release required making “difficult decisions.”
“The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly.Biden said in a statement. “His safe return is a testament to the priority my administration places on bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained abroad,” he said.
Reed, in his 30s, was sentenced in July 2020 to nine years in prison for assaulting two policemen during a party in Moscow when he was drunk.
The former marine denied the aggression and denounces a “political” trial in a context of high tensions between Russia and the United States.
Yaroshenko, on the other hand, was arrested in 2010 in Liberia by US secret service agents. Accused of drug trafficking, the authorities took him to the United States, where the justice sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
US President Joe Biden has vowed to do everything possible to free Trevor Reed and other Americans “wrongly detained” in Russia. The hypothesis of a prisoner exchange had been mentioned several times.
Detained in a penal colony in Mordovia, 500 km from Moscow, Reed had started a hunger strike in November 2021 to protest against his conditions of detention.
Source: Ambito
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