Russia sentences two more Americans to seven years each
PHOTO CAPTION: U.S. Marine veteran Robert Gilman, who serves a sentence for attacking a police officer and is accused of assaulting a prison official, attends a court hearing in Voronezh, Russia October 7, 2024. REUTERS/Vladimir Lavrov
(Reuters) -Russian courts jailed two Americans on Monday following separate criminal trials.
Stephen James Hubbard, 72, was sentenced to six years and 10 months in prison after being convicted in a closed court in Moscow of serving as a mercenary for Ukraine.
Robert Gilman, 30, received a sentence of seven years and one month. An ex-Marine, he was found guilty by a Russian court of assaulting a prison officer and a state investigator at a penal colony in Voronezh, south of the Russian capital, where he is serving time on a separate assault charge.
At least nine other Americans remain behind bars in Russia, over two months after a major prisoner swap on Aug. 1 between Moscow and the West freed three Americans and dozens of others.
Here are the most prominent cases.
KSENIA KARELINA
A dual Russian-American citizen, Karelina was sentenced to 12 years in prison in August after a Russian court found her guilty of treason for donating just over $50 to a New York-based charity supporting Ukraine.
The 33-year-old Los Angeles spa worker was arrested in February while visiting family in Yekaterinburg. After discovering the charity donation on her phone, the FSB security service accused her of collecting funds for the benefit of the Ukrainian army.
Her lawyer has said she pleaded guilty in the hopes of getting a lighter sentence, and that he would work towards securing her release in a future prisoner exchange.
MARC FOGEL
A schoolteacher and former employee of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Fogel is serving a 14-year sentence for drug smuggling after he was detained at a Moscow airport in August 2021 with 17 grams of marijuana in his luggage. Fogel, 63, said he uses the drugs for medical reasons.
U.S. President Joe Biden said Washington is "not giving up" on securing the teacher's release following the prisoner swap in early August. Fogel's family has expressed frustration that he was not included in that exchange.
GORDON BLACK
An active duty U.S. staff sergeant based in South Korea, Black was detained in May in Russia's Far East on suspicion of stealing money from his Russian girlfriend.
A court in June found Black guilty of stealing 10,000 roubles ($104) from the woman and threatening to kill her, sentencing him to three years and nine months in prison. He later lost an appeal hearing.
U.S. officials have said the Army has stopped paying Black's wages and may prosecute him for violating its rules if he returns to the U.S.
DANIEL JOSEPH SCHNEIDER
Schneider was sentenced to six years in prison in September by a court in the Kaliningrad region for kidnapping his own son, after he tried to leave Russia with the four-year-old without permission from the boy's mother.
Schneider was detained near Poland by Russia's border service while trying to cross the border in a forest swamp, the court said.
JOSEPH TATER
Tater was sentenced to 15 days in jail in August for "petty hooliganism" after he was alleged to have abused staff at a Moscow hotel, which he denied. Russian news agencies say he is also being investigated on a more serious charge of assaulting a police officer, which carries up to five years in prison.
A court in September denied his appeal to be released from pre-trial detention.
MICHAEL TRAVIS LEAKE
A musician and former U.S. paratrooper, Leake was sentenced to 13 years in prison in July for drug smuggling.
It was not clear how Leake pleaded to the charges, filed following his arrest in June 2023.
ROBERT ROMANOV WOODLAND
A U.S. citizen adopted from Russia as a child, Woodland had moved back to Russia and was working as an English teacher when he was arrested on charges of attempting to sell drugs.
He was sentenced on July 4 to 12-1/2 years in prison. His lawyer said Woodland had partially admitted guilt.
EUGENE SPECTOR
Currently serving a 3-1/2-year sentence for bribery, Spector, who was born in Russia and then moved to the U.S., was charged last August with espionage.
Before his arrest in 2021, he served as chairman of the board of Medpolymerprom Group, a company specialising in cancer-curing drugs, state media said. Spector had pleaded guilty to helping bribe an assistant to an ex-Russian deputy prime minister. It was not clear how he pleaded to the espionage charge.
DAVID BARNES
Barnes was sentenced by a Russian court in February to 21 years on charges of abusing his two sons in the United States. He had been involved in a custody dispute with his Russian ex-wife.
The allegations had previously been investigated in Texas, where authorities found no grounds to charge him.
($1 = 96.0500 roubles)
(Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Timothy Heritage)
