Trevor Reed, the previous Marine who was released from a Russian prison remaining month, spoke with Jake Tapper in a CNN Special File, “Eventually Residence: The Trevor Reed Interview,” that aired Sunday night, to share the expertise of his ordeal and recommend for different American citizens held by means of opposed overseas international locations overseas. Reed described in brutal element his horrific experiences whereas imprisoned, his efforts at resistance, and how he hoped he would be capable of dissuade Russia from taking any other Americans hostage.

Reed used to be traveling Moscow in the summer of 2019 with his lady friend on the time, a Russian attorney named Lina Tsybulnik. He become intoxicated at a celebration, blacked out and was ill on the aspect of the road. He was once arrested and put right into a cell to sober up.

The Russian cops at first treated him smartly, even joking with him the following morning that they might “educate him later” the right way to deal with Russian vodka. Reed used to be informed he might depart and was once ready for Tsybulnik to pick out him up when the law enforcement officials’ shift modified and the on-accountability chief used to be some distance more antagonistic, unexpectedly saying he may now not go away. FSB officers (the successor organization to the KGB) got here in and accused him of assaulting the law enforcement officials in the station. Tsybulnik disputed that, demanded video from the station cameras. Reed advised Tapper there have been about forty cameras within the station, and the officers should have realized they couldn’t plausibly claim they were all out of order, so they then accused him of assaulting the officers right through the journey to the station.

Regardless of evidence in Reed’s prefer (Tsybulnik said she had pushed at the back of the police car and denied any assault took place, Reed’s safety team received video of the highway the place the law enforcement officials claimed the assault happened and it too showed no such factor, Reed incurred multiple suspicious wounds while he was unconscious suggesting he was once crushed by way of the officers), he was convicted after a “sham of a trial” to nine years in jail — a sentence extra frequently passed down to those who had dedicated homicide, Tapper noted.

Reed described his response to the conviction, telling Tapper that in Russia, after one of these conviction, prisoners had been despatched to compelled labor camps.

On the other hand, “I was now not going to work,” Reed persisted. “Ethically I may no longer do this.” In his view, the Russians had kidnapped him, convicted him, and given him “the largest punishment you’ve ever handed out under this felony article and you then send me to a compelled labor camp and also you predict me to head in there and work and produce things for the same executive who is kidnapping American citizens.”

“Did you do any work at all?” requested Tapper.

“No, completely no longer,” replied Reed. Once it become clear he was once refusing to work, the Russian guards told him they’d punish him, he said, but he was once determined, telling them that used to be “now not going to alter anything.”

After that, he used to be put into solitary confinement, for virtually seven of the nine months he spent at the camp.

Reed described his purpose for his resistance to Tapper: “I hoped that I might be this sort of drawback for them that sooner or later once they considered, , taking Americans hostage they’d assume, you recognize, is it value it?”

“Did you ever come with regards to hitting any kind of breaking point?” requested Tapper.

“No,” said Reed, “and to be honest with you, the longer that I used to be in there, the more dedicated I used to be to not allowing them to break me, and that was once actually some of the major issues that I held on to that received me through that used to be realizing that no matter how lengthy I was going to be there, they have been never going to break me.”

“Maybe I’d have died, however psychologically they by no means would have damaged me.”

Reed’s health suffered whereas he used to be imprisoned, losing from a hundred seventy five kilos when he used to be despatched to prison to just 131 kilos when he used to be launched, a loss of forty four pounds.

The meals served to the prisoners was “extremely negative,” mentioned Reed, theorizing that it gave the look of what they’d have given prisoners throughout the Center A long time in Europe.

Dinner used to be “either cabbage or potatoes,” he advised Tapper, and then “fish of some kind,” checklist three unappetizing sorts that incorporated a patty that used to be “tough to eat as a result of the bones within,” a baked fish “that’s like a complete fish about this measurement with a tail and head and the whole lot,” after which some form of “salt fish” that wasn’t correctly dried or preserved, however just “put in salt water to try to kill the parasites.”

The fish used to be so unhealthy, in truth, that now not even the feral cats wandering the jail camp grounds would devour it.

Reed stated he at the beginning tried to “distract” himself with the aid of studying, “to escape into a special world,” finding it psychologically very helpful, but soon the Russians refused to let him get entry to any books in English.

That, said Reed, was once the “remaining straw” that led him into his first starvation strike. He become very ill, he said, “consistently ill unless I left,” including coughing up blood a couple of instances a day, each day, for a number of months. The Russians refused to ship him to a medical institution, he said, so he started a second starvation strike “so that they would get me medical consideration.”

“For his or her part the Russians say Reed was sent to a medical facility on the end of his hunger strike and his health was once, quote, adequate, however that in line with Trevor is a lie,” mentioned Tapper.

When Reed was once being transported for the prisoner swap, he firstly hoped and believed that Paul Whelan, some other former Marine being held in Russia, would even be released with him. When he realized Whelan was not becoming a member of him, that used to be “difficult,” he instructed Tapper.  He was once heartened to hear from other prisoners that Whelan used to be “combating,” and “resisting,” and “inflicting as many issues as he can,” just like Reed’s own efforts.

“He’s no longer giving up,” mentioned Reed. “I used to be proud to hear that, and I’m still pleased with him.”

Still, he’s intensely frustrated that Whelan remains imprisoned, along with dozens of alternative Americans all over the world.

“We need to do completely the whole thing we can, as Americans, to advocate for these Americans who are being held illegally out of the country and do each single thing we can conceivable to get them out,” said Reed.

Watch the video above, via CNN.

The post Trevor Reed Shares Brutal Experience in Russian Prison, His Hopes His Resistance Would Make Them Steer clear of Taking Other Americans Hostage first regarded on Mediaite.