US Marine veteran Trevor Reed is on his method house after being launched from Russia, the place officers mentioned he was wrongfully detained since 2019.
“At present, our prayers have been answered and Trevor is safely on his method again to the United States,” his household mentioned in a statement.
Reed’s launch got here as a part of a prisoner swap with Russia, with the US sending again Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot sentenced in 2011 to a 20-year jail time period for importing greater than $100 million of cocaine.
The shock prisoner alternate was the results of lengthy and troublesome negotiations between the US and Russia, in keeping with each international locations. The fraught diplomacy was made all of the extra extraordinary due to the utter collapse of relations between Washington and Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
President Joe Biden, who met with the Reed household final month, mentioned in an announcement on Wednesday that the negotiations to launch him “required troublesome choices that I don’t take flippantly.”
“I heard within the voices of Trevor’s mother and father how a lot they’ve fearful about his well being and missed his presence,” Biden mentioned. “And I used to be delighted to have the ability to share with them the excellent news about Trevor’s freedom.”
Reed, 30, was imprisoned for allegedly assaulting a police officer whereas he was drunk, however his household and US diplomats mentioned he was harmless, describing the proof towards him at trial as “preposterous” and “absurd.” As an alternative, they mentioned he was being held as a bargaining chip.
In latest weeks, Reed’s well being had deteriorated and he had been hospitalized with indicators of tuberculosis and a doable damaged rib, in keeping with the State Division, making his launch all of the extra pressing.
Reed’s household mentioned Biden’s choice to go forward with the prisoner swap might have saved the previous Marine’s life. That they had beforehand expressed fears that Reed may undergo the identical destiny as Otto Warmbier, the American pupil held for 17 months in North Korea who went right into a coma after his 2017 launch and died.
The State Division has previously declined to establish precisely what number of People have been detained in Russia, however there are at the least two high-profile prisoners who stay behind bars there: Paul Whelan and WNBA star Brittney Griner.
Whelan, one other former Marine, has been detained the longest, having been first arrested at the end of 2018, and accused of being an American spy. His household has denied this, however he was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in jail.
Ryan Fayhee, a former Justice Division official now appearing as a professional bono legal professional for the Whelan household, mentioned they’d “complicated emotions” about Wednesday’s information.
“They need the household the easiest, however additionally they view this as a missed alternative,” Fayhee mentioned, pointing to the completely different crimes the 2 swapped prisoners have been convicted of. “It was a fairly excessive worth to pay. Should you make a comparability between the 2 individuals who’ve gone house immediately, to not embody Paul in that could be a missed alternative.”
Fayhee known as on Biden to satisfy with the Whelans like he did with the Reeds, and take into account different choices than prisoner exchanges in an effort to free him.
