FSIN denies incarcerated U.S. citizen Reed has tuberculosis

NIZHNY NOVGOROD. April 7 (Interfax) - U.S. citizen Trevor Reed, who has been convicted in Russia of attacking police officers, is undergoing a health check at a penitentiary. He does not have tuberculosis, the Mordovia branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) told Interfax on Thursday.

"Convict Reed is undergoing a health check at an infirmary at his request. The convict's health condition is satisfactory. Information that he might have tuberculosis is incorrect," the branch press service said.

It was reported last week that Reed, who is incarcerated in a penitentiary in Mordovia, went on a hunger strike to protest against a reprimand. His family said he was protesting against his suspected tuberculosis and transfer to a special solitary confinement cell.

The FSIN regional branch said that Reed stopped his hunger strike on April 1 and was transferred to an infirmary for an additional health check. It also said that Reed was in satisfactory condition.

Meanwhile, Reed's lawyers Sergei Nikitenkov and Viktoria Buklova told Interfax that he stopped his hunger strike after he was examined by doctors.

Reed previously went on a hunger strike in November 2021. The Mordovia branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service said back then that he had not informed the penitentiary administration about the hunger strike and continued to eat as usual.

On July 30, 2020, the Golovinsky District Court of Moscow sentenced Reed to nine years in a general security penitentiary on charges of using violence against law enforcement officers. The court also ordered that Reed pay 100,000 rubles in moral damages to the two aggrieved police officers.

The Moscow City Court upheld Reed's sentence on July 28, 2021.

According to court filings, the police received a report saying that a man was arguing aggressively with two women near 106, Leningradskoye Highway in Moscow on August 16, 2019. Police officers arrived at the scene and tried to calm the man down, but he began behaving aggressively and resisted them.

The officers had to force the man into a police car and then took him to the Levoberezhny police station. On the way there, Reed assaulted the driver, tore his uniform, hit his colleague, and caused a dangerous traffic situation.

Once at the police station, the man was identified as Trevor Reed, a 28-year-old student born in Texas, United States, who was living temporarily in an apartment on Otkrytoye Highway in Moscow. A court ordered his arrest the next day.

When speaking in court, Reed pleaded not guilty and claimed that he did not remember the incident, as he was drunk at the time.

U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Moscow and Washington were discussing the Reed case at the highest level and noted the need for his release from custody.

U.S. diplomats and Reed's lawyers said in February that the U.S. citizen might have contracted tuberculosis.