MOSCOW (AP), A Moscow court rejected Monday the appeal of an American imprisoned for his nine-year sentence for assaulting officers.Moscow City Court upheld Trevor Reed's sentence from a lower court last year. He was convicted for an altercation in Moscow in August 2019. Trevor Reed was visiting Moscow to study Russian.Although I am sorry that the appellate court did not correct this gross injustice, it does not affect the seriousness of the matter that I and the U.S government will pursue for Trevor to be released so that he can spend time with his family." U.S. After attending the hearing, Ambassador John Sullivan spoke to reporters outside the court.Reed was accused in an assault on police officers while being driven to a station by them after he had been picked up from a party. The United States demanded Reed's release, claiming that the evidence against him was weak.In a recent interview with NBC News about Reed, Vladimir Putin said that he was a drunk and a troublemaker.Reed was diagnosed in May with COVID-19. The U.S. Embassy raised concerns about Reed's inability to have consular access during his hospitalization earlier this month and stated that he had been denied numerous phone calls to his family members or personnel from the embassy.After the court hearing, Sullivan stated that Trevor was able to talk with me and my colleagues. He is doing well considering the circumstances. He is a young man who is remarkable and resilient.Reed is one among two Americans currently held in Russia for espionage. Paul Whelan was a former corporate security officer who is also Canadian, Irish, and British citizen. He was convicted and sentenced to 16 year imprisonment for espionage. According to his lawyer, his client was given a flash drive with classified information that contained sensitive information that he did not know about.Joe Biden, the U.S. president, stated that Whelan and Reed are wrongfully being held in Russia. He raised their concerns with Putin during their summit in Geneva earlier in this month.Continue the storyPutin opened the door for possible talks about a prisoner swap between the U.S., and stated that those conversations would continue. Biden indicated that he would also follow up.Two prisoners are being held by the U.S., one of whom Russia has been seeking for over a decade. The other is Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot who was extradited from Liberia in 2010. Konstantin Yaroshenko is the other. He was a pilot who was extradited to Liberia in 2010, and convicted of conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the U.S. the following year.Sullivan only returned to Moscow last week. After Russian officials suggested Sullivan leave in April, Sullivan flew back to Moscow. Moscow recalls the Russian ambassador in Washington for consultations after Biden had described Putin as a murderer in March.In an effort to improve diplomatic relations between the two countries, Putin and Biden reached an agreement at the Geneva summit to send their ambassadors back to Washington and Moscow.___This report was contributed by Anna Frants from Moscow.
