FREEDOM FIGHT
Inside ex-US Marine Trevor Reed’s battle for freedom from Russian prison after hunger strike over horror jail conditions
A FORMER Marine was jailed in Russia for 985 days before being freed in a dramatic prisoner swap on Wednesday.
Trevor Reed staged multiple hunger strikes as he and his family fought for his release from horror prison conditions.
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Reed was seen in video being escorted by armed guards as his freedom was exchanged for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko's.
Reed was arrested in Moscow in 2019 after being accused of intentionally endangering the lives of government officials in the line of duty.
Russian cops claimed that Reed got drunk and grabbed the arm of an officer as he was being taken to a station in allegations that were dismissed by US officials as “preposterous.”
The Texas veteran was handed a nine-year prison sentence for the supposed crime.
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"Today our prayers have been answered and Trevor is safely on his way back to the United States," Reed's family said in a statement on Wednesday.
They said they have been living a nightmare while Reed was behind bars.
"First and foremost, we'd like to thank President Biden for his kindness, consideration, and for making the decision to bring Trevor home," the parents went on to say.
"The President's action may have saved Trevor's life."
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PRISON CONDITIONS
Reed, 30, spent nearly three years in Russian custody after his arrest in August 2019. He was studying Russian and visiting his girlfriend in Moscow at the time.
After his trial, Reed was transferred to Labor Camp IK-12 in the Republic of Mordovia, his father wrote on a website dedicated to his case.
The dad said that Reed was placed in a small solitary confinement cell alone or with one other prisoner for most of the time between mid July 2021 and early March 2022.
He described the rooms as having a hole in the floor for a toilet with a fold down metal frame bed on chains, untreated water faucet, and no real heating.
He said his son often had to lay on the floor near a hot water pipe to stay warm during the daytime.
The father also said that Reed was allowed to call the US Embassy for the first time in 232 days on March 4. The call was relayed to them in the US, marking the first time Reed had called them since July 15, 2021.
HEALTH CONCERNS
Reed's release came as his parents had become increasingly worried about his health.
In a March 11 update, his father said that Reed was moved to a prison hospital after coughing blood for weeks.
He had a fever off and on and pain in his lungs, the dad claimed.
"We were notified early this week that there was an accident and Trevor thinks he might have a broken rib. He is not sure why he is being sent to the hospital prison or if he will receive any testing or treatment while there," the father wrote.
"His past experience with prison hospitals was to have very little treatment."
Reed's parents also said that their son was exposed to an inmate with active tuberculosis in December of 2021 but had not been tested despite his health rapidly deteriorating.
reported that Reed was in a prison hospital for 10 days before he was returned to prison without receiving “meaningful medical care beyond an X-ray which was taken incorrectly,” according to his parents.
Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service denied Reed's account of being in contact with a tuberculosis patient and claimed that repeated tests had come back negative.
Reed's parents also wrote on their website that Reed was suffering lingering effects after having Covid-19 in June 2021, and that he had other health issues that they believed may have been caused by drinking non-potable water in solitary confinement.
HUNGER STRIKES
Reed staged two hunger strikes between November 2021 and April 2022, NPR reported.
The outlet reported that the latest came in protest of his treatment in the Russian prison and his claims that he was not being treated for possible tuberculosis.
Reed's parents wrote in an April 4 statement: "As a result of his hunger strike, Trevor lost seven pounds in five days, his health continues to deteriorate by the day, and we remain terrified that Trevor will become the next Otto Warmbier if the Administration doesn't act urgently to bring him home."
Warmbier, 21, was arrested at Pyongyang International Airport in North Korea in January 2016 after being accused of trying to steal a propaganda poster from a staff-only area of his hotel.
When he was released 17 months later, the American student was comatose, and he died within a week of his return to the US, never regaining consciousness.
Reed's 2021 hunger strike lasted almost a week and was in protest of his incarceration and alleged rights abuses.
Reed's parents said in a Wednesday statement: "While we understand the interest in Trevor's story — and as soon as he's ready, he'll tell his own story, we'd respectfully ask for some privacy while we address the myriad of health issues brought on by the squalid conditions he was subjected to in his Russian gulag."
PRISONER SWAP
Reed's father told CNN that the prisoner exchange on Wednesday took place in .
“The American plane pulled up next to the Russian plane and they walked both prisoners across at the same time, like you see in the movies,” he said.
The swap was described as unexpected and surprising amid Russia's war on Ukraine and its impact on US-Russia relations.
In return for Reed's freedom, the US released Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the US.
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Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the states, where the Justice Department described him as “an experienced international drug trafficker.”
The Sun's emails to the Reed family spokesperson for more details about Reed's health and conditions he faced in prison were not immediately returned on Wednesday.
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