June 14 (UPI) -- The parents of former Marine Trevor Reed, who is serving a prison sentence in Russia, called on President Joe Biden to get their son released, even if it means a prison swap for him.
The parents made the plea on NBC's Today, just two days before Biden is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
"We don't care how he comes home if they want to exchange Trevor for some criminals that you know are low-level criminals or whatever," Joey Reed, Trevor Reed's father said on the morning show. "We're fine with that. We want our son home."
Reed was sentenced to nine years in prison last July for assaulting police. The Texas native had been detained since August 2019 after police claimed he attacked them while he was drunk. Reed had attended a party for a colleague of his girlfriend, Alina Tsybulnik, when the incident happened.
Reed has denied the Russian charges while John Sullivan, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, called his trial "theater of the absurd."
While in prison, Reed wrote to Tsybulnik saying he had contracted the coronavirus and his family said they have had difficulty getting updates on his condition.
Another former Marine, Paul Whelan, was sentenced last year to 16 years in a Russian prison after he was convicted on espionage charges. Whelan was attending a wedding in 2018 when he was arrested for having a flash drive that Russian officials said contained state secrets.
Whelan, 50, was arrested in December 2018 while in Moscow.
