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A Moscow court docket has sentenced a 72-year-old US citizen to 6 years and 10 months in jail for allegedly preventing in a Ukrainian unit towards Russia’s invading military.
Stephen Hubbard, from the small city of Large Rapids, Michigan, is the primary US citizen to be jailed in Russia on “mercenary” prices since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
Russian state media revealed footage of Hubbard, who appeared to have issue standing, listening in a glass cage as a choose learn out his sentence.
The conviction, following a quick closed-door trial in Moscow metropolis court docket, makes Hubbard one in every of a few dozen People presently being held in Russia on varied prices.
Russia arrested a number of US residents within the interval main as much as and instantly following the invasion in what was broadly seen as a hostage-taking technique geared toward securing the discharge of the Kremlin’s operatives from jail within the west.
In August, Russia launched 16 prisoners, together with the Wall Avenue Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, in a fancy swap with the US and 4 European international locations for eight Russians held within the west.
The trade was the biggest of its variety for the reason that chilly struggle however solely included Gershkovich and two different US residents, the journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Paul Whelan, a former Marine.
In return, the Russians obtained the discharge of Vadim Krasikov, a hitman convicted of a homicide in Berlin, and, in a earlier trade, the releasing of Viktor Bout, a infamous arms vendor generally known as the “Service provider of Demise”.
Although prosecutors stated Hubbard was arrested after Russia captured town of Izyum in japanese Ukraine in April 2022, his case solely got here to public consideration final week when he pleaded responsible to prices of serving in a mercenary unit.
Prosecutors claimed Hubbard had lived in Ukraine since 2014 and signed a contract with a territorial defence unit in Izyum within the early weeks of the struggle, state newswire Tass reported.
In line with the indictment, Hubbard was to obtain at the least $1,000 a month, skilled to make use of a weapon and fought for Ukrainian forces till he was detained by Russian troops.
Hubbard deliberate to attraction towards his conviction, Tass stated, citing a member of his defence staff.
The circumstances of Hubbard’s seize and prosecution stay largely unclear.
His sister, Patricia Fox, advised Reuters final week that he had by no means owned a gun and was residing alone in Ukraine earlier than the struggle after splitting with a girlfriend there.
Ukraine has not commented on Hubbard’s arrest. The US embassy in Moscow stated it was conscious of his detention and declined to remark additional.
Individually on Monday, a court docket within the southern Russian metropolis of Voronezh sentenced one other US citizen, Robert Gilman, to seven years and one month in jail on prices of assaulting an investigator and jail official whereas being held on different prices.
Gilman, who had already been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail for assaulting a police officer, advised state newswire RIA Novosti final week he needed to be exchanged in a prisoner swap.