Hunger-striking ex-US Marine sent to prison hospital in Russia

Trevor Reed’s parents say he is protesting not receiving proper medical care despite fears that he has tuberculosis.

Trevor Reed, a former US Marine jailed in Russia, has been transferred to the prison’s medical facility after beginning a hunger strike last month, according to his lawyers.

The 30-year-old Texan is serving a nine-year jail term after being convicted of endangering the lives of two police officers while drunk on a visit to Moscow in 2019. He denied the charges and the US called his trial a “theatre of the absurd”.

“Trevor Reed has been transferred to the prison colony’s medical facility,” his lawyers Sergei Nikitenkov and Viktoria Buklova told Interfax news agency on Monday. “He lost weight during his hunger strike.”

Reed’s parents said last week that Reed had declared a hunger strike to protest being put in solitary confinement and not receiving proper medical care despite fears that he has tuberculosis.

They said Reed had been exposed to an inmate with active tuberculosis in December last year, but that their son had not been tested for the illness despite a rapid deterioration of his health.

Russia’s state prison service confirmed that Reed had declared a hunger strike on March 28 to protest disciplinary action against him, but said that he had repeatedly tested negative for tuberculosis.

The Federal Penitentiary Service has described Reed’s health as satisfactory, saying he had not come into contact with anyone suffering from tuberculosis and that his condition was being closely monitored.

Reed also staged a hunger strike last year to protest his incarceration and alleged rights abuses before calling it off almost a week later.