WASHINGTON (CBSDFW.COM/AP) – A Texas native and former Marine is free after Russia and the United States held a prisoner swap on Wednesday. Trevor Reed, who had been jailed in Moscow, was swapped for a convicted Russian drug lord serving a prison sentence in the United States.
The surprise deal would have been a remarkable diplomatic maneuver even in peacetime, but it was all all the more extraordinary because it was made when Russia’s war with Ukraine has brought relations with the US to their lowest point in decades.
reed family
As part of the exchange, Russia freed Reed, who was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while police were driving him to a police station after a night of heavy drinking. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison, though his family in North Texas has maintained his innocence. and the US government has described him as wrongfully detained.
Following the news of his release, Joey, Paula and Taylor Reed sent out a statement that read, in part:
“Trevor has been wrongfully detained for a ‘crime’ that the US Ambassador to Russia has said ‘obviously didn’t happen’ and our family has been living through a nightmare. Today, our prayers have been answered and Trevor is healthy and except on his way back to the United States.”
The US has agreed to return Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in Connecticut for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the US after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the US. .
Russia had sought his return for years while rejecting pleas from high-level US officials to free Reed, who was approaching his 1,000th day in custody and whose health had recently worsened, according to his family.
The two prisoners were exchanged in a European country. Although officials did not say where the transfer took place, in the hours before it happened, commercial flight trackers identified a plane belonging to Russia’s federal security service flying to Ankara, Turkey. The US Bureau of Prisons also updated its website overnight to reflect that Yaroshenko was no longer in custody.
The White House issued a statement that read, in part:
“Today we welcome home Trevor Reed and celebrate his return to the family who missed him so much. Trevor, a former US Marine, is free from Russian detention. I heard in the voices of parents Trevor how concerned they have been about his health. And I missed their presence. And I was delighted to be able to share with them the good news about Trevor’s freedom.”
The prisoner swap marks the highest-profile release during the Biden administration of an American considered wrongfully detained abroad and comes even as families of detainees who have met with administration officials over the past year have described them as indifferent to the idea of an exchange.
In their statement, the Reed family also thanked President Joe Biden “for making the decision to bring Trevor home,” as well as other administration officials and Bill Richardson, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, who according to the family traveled to Moscow in the hours. before the Ukraine war began in hopes of securing Reed’s release.
Reed was one of several Americans known to be held by Russia, including WNBA star Brittney Griner, another Texas native who was arrested in February after authorities said a search of her purse revealed a cannabis derivative, and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, who is being held on espionage-related charges that his family says are false. It was unclear what impact Wednesday’s action might have on his case.
Reed’s parents managed a rare private meeting with Biden and administration officials. in March. Weeks earlier they had stood along his motorcade route during a presidential visit to Texas in hopes of attracting his attention, then demonstrated outside the White House to ask for a meeting.
Reference-www.cbsnews.com