Ex-U.S. Marine Trevor Reed ends hunger strike in Russian prison, but representative denies he's getting "real medical care"

Former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, who is serving a nine-year prison sentence in Russia, has ended a hunger strike and been transferred to a prison medical facility, his representatives and prison officials said Monday. As CBS News reported, Reed began a hunger strike in late March to protest the conditions of his detention.

• Trevor Reed, former U.S. Marine, freed in U.S.-Russia prisoner swap

The Federal Penitentiary Service for the Mordovia region, where the prison is located, said Monday that Reed had ended his hunger strike a few days earlier, after prison officials granted his request to be transferred for medical care. The service said he was receiving medical treatment.

His parents previously told CBS News that they suspected their son was suffering from "acute tuberculosis," as well as an injury to a rib they said he sustained after something fell on him.

"Reed was in contact with a tuberculosis patient and demanded a health check, which he was given after the hunger strike," Reed's Russia-based lawyers said, according to Interfax news agency. "Trevor's health requires a thorough check and respective medical measures."  

The Reed family's representative in the U.S., Jonathan Franks, however, denied that the jailed American was getting any medical help.

"Trevor has been to the 'prison hospital' many times. He has never received any real medical care," he said in a tweet. "The Russian statements last week about Trevor having received non-stop medical care and repeated [tuberculosis] tests are nonsense."  

Reed, a native of Texas, was sentenced in 2020 after being convicted of assaulting two Russian police officers in 2019 on a drunken night out. He said he had no recollection of the incident and pleaded not guilty. U.S. officials questioned the fairness of the trial. They alleged that Russia may have handed him one of the harshest sentences ever for the charge in order to use him as a political pawn amid deteriorating relations with the U.S.

Reed's family met President Joe Biden last week after protesting outside the White House in hope of bringing officials' attention to their son's case.

Joey and Paula Reed told CBS News later that they were not expecting to speak to the president that day, but were able to discuss Trevor's case, his health, and the rumors of a potential prisoner swap for about 40 minutes.

President Biden promised to work to end the "nightmare" of his detention, the White House said on Thursday.

Reed had previously gone on a two-week-long hunger strike in November 2021, which he said he held because of conditions including "being repeatedly placed in a punitive isolation ward," his lawyers said at the time.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price previously said U.S. diplomats were being denied access to Reed and to Paul Whelan, another former American Marine who's serving time in Russia on espionage charges that Washington says are fabricated.

The third high-profile U.S. citizen currently held in Russia is professional basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained in Moscow's airport in mid-February on charges of trying to bring vape cartridges that contained cannabis oil in her luggage. Those charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, but she has not yet been convicted.