American Trevor Reed Denied Medical Care for TB in Russian Prison: Report

Trevor Reed, an American and former Marine currently serving a sentence in Russian prison, is reportedly "coughing up blood" and is being denied medical care after he was exposed to another prisoner suffering from "active tuberculosis."

The exposure occurred in December, and Reed has recently reported the lack of care for his medical issues, according to a tweet from Jason P. Rebholz, a spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

Reed was sentenced to nine years in prison over allegations that he assaulted Russian police officers while he was in the country visiting his girlfriend. Members of his family told Newsweek last month they were concerned they may never see him again if the situation between Russia and Ukraine continues to escalate. They also said that he was detained with no evidence and that Russian authorities refused to consider evidence they said would prove he did nothing wrong.

"The judge refused to hear any of the evidence, and they had already decided what they're going to do. They gave him the longest sentence for that charge in modern Russian history," Joey Reed, Trevor's father, told Newsweek regarding the verdict a Russian court reached in July 2020.

He reportedly went on a hunger strike in November in protest of his conviction and the conditions in which he was being forced to live, including the fact that he had not been allowed to speak with his family for over 100 days.

Newsweek has reached out to the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for comment.

"Trevor Reed was subjected to a lengthy, close-contact exposure to a prisoner who had active TB in December—that prisoner became gravely ill shortly after his encounter with Trevor. Despite beginning post-exposure prophylaxis for other inmates, Russian authorities have refused to do the same for Trevor and have thus far refused to test him," Reed family spokesperson Jonathan Franks said in a statement to Newsweek.

"Trevor continues to complain about pain in his chest (related to breathing, not his heart) and authorities continue to refuse him any medical treatment whatsoever. Any suggestion by Russian authorities that they have provided Trevor meaningful medical care is patently false," Franks said.

He also said that prison authorities allegedly confiscated legal documents he intended to give to his lawyer, which were set to be filed with higher-level authorities alleging that he had been denied a TB test.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has repeatedly called for the release of Reed, as well as the release of Paul Whelan, another ex-Marine who was arrested in Russia in 2018 and convicted in 2020 on espionage charges and is currently serving a 16-year sentence.

Blinken has also discussed the release of the two Americans with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which Whelan's family told Newsweek last month they were appreciative of.

Update 2/16/22, 6:42 p.m. EST: This story has been updated with a statement from Reed family spokesperson Jonathan Franks.