Russia hands Marine veteran Trevor Reed 14 year sentence in absentia

PHOTO CAPTION: U.S. Marine veteran Trevor Reed, who was detained in 2019 and accused of assaulting police officers, is escorted to a plane by Russian service members as part of a prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia, in Moscow, Russia, in this still image taken from video released April 27, 2022. RU24/Handout via REUTERS TV

(Reuters) - A Russian court on Wednesday found Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine who was freed by Russia in a 2022 prisoner swap, guilty in absentia of serving as a mercenary for Ukraine and handed him a prison sentence of 14-1/2 years.

Russia's Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes, said Reed had joined Ukraine's army in July 2023 and "directly participated on the side of the Ukrainian security forces in combat operations" against Russian troops in Ukraine.

It said it had placed Reed on the international wanted list.

Reed could not immediately be reached for comment. The U.S. State Department said last July that he had been injured while fighting in Ukraine and had been transferred to Germany for medical care.

Reed, born in 1991, was convicted in Russia in 2019 of endangering the lives of two police officers while drunk on a visit to Moscow. The United States called his trial a "theater of the absurd."

He was freed in a prisoner swap in April 2022 in exchange for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who had been convicted of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S.

Separately, a Russian court on Monday sentenced a 72-year-old American, Stephen James Hubbard, to nearly seven years in prison for serving as a mercenary for Ukraine.



(Reporting and writing by Lucy Papachristou, Editing by Timothy Heritage)