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Ex-US Marine held in Russia for 4 years released days after falling ‘gravely ill’
The former US marine had been detained in Russia since 2022, where he was initially sentenced to a prison term of three-and-a-half years.
A former US marine who spent more than four years in a prison in Russia under alleged abusive conditions was released by Moscow after a pardon by President Vladimir Putin under humanitarian reasons, US officials said.
32-year-old Robert Gilman released days after he reportedly fell “gravely ill” and was at “risk of dying”, the Associated Press cited a group advocating for him as saying on Tuesday. He was being held in a prison in Voronezh, about 340 miles (550 kilometers) south of Moscow, Reuters news agency reported. The exact circumstances of his health are unclear. He is on his way to a US military hospital in Texas.
The former US marine had been detained in Russia since 2022, where he was initially sentenced to a prison term of three-and-a-half years. He was convicted on charges of beating a police officer after being taken off a train for causing a disturbance, and was again convicted for attacking a prison inspector during a cell check, beating an investigator and assaulting a guard, according to the AP report.
His sentence was extended in October 2024 to eight years and one month after the above instances, and was further extended to ten years after he was found guilty of assaulting prison guards.
Gilman was one of at least eight Americans who remained in Russian custody after a series of high-profile prisoner exchanges with the US in recent years. The White House and the State Department had urged Russia to release Gilman so that he can receive medical treatment in US.
Gilman was in ‘dissociative stupor’ for 47 days due to abuse
Eric Lebson, chief strategy officer of Global Reach, a group that’s been working to free him and other American detainees abroad, said Gilman will be medically and psychologically assessed and treated after reaching Texas. Before he was flown out of Russia, the former US marine had been in “a dissociative stupor” for 47 days due to the abuse he reportedly suffered in prison, AP reported citing Lebson.
Gilman’s family has also flown to Texas to be with him, including his mother, who was in Russia attempting to see him at the hospital. He had earlier been moved from the Russian prison to the psychiatric ward of a civilian emergency hospital, wherein he was hooked up to a feeding tube and handcuffed to a bed.
However, a US official who spoke to Gilman said he was walking and talking. “All things considered he seems to be in good shape,” Reuters cited the US official as saying.
