Russia Transfers Ex-US Marine to Region With Tough Soviet-era Prisons

MOSCOW - A former U.S. Marine who is serving a nine-year sentence in Russia was being transferred Friday from a remand cell in Moscow to the Mordovia region, which has a large number of tough, Soviet-era prisons.

Trevor Reed was convicted last year of endangering the lives of two policemen in Moscow while drunk, a charge he denied. He said the ruling was "clearly political," and Washington called the trial "theater of the absurd." Reed had remained in a remand cell after his conviction pending an appeal. That appeal was rejected, and his sentence was upheld at a court hearing last month. "This morning Trevor Reed was [taken] from Moscow, he will serve his punishment in one of Mordovia's [prison] colonies," Alexei Melnikov, a member of a prison oversight commission was quoted as saying by the RIA news agency.