MOSCOW — An appellate courtroom in Russia’s a long way east on Monday decreased the jail sentence for an American soldier convicted of stealing and making threats of homicide, Russia’s state information company RIA Novosti reported.
Personnel Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, flew to the Pacific port town of Vladivostok to peer his female friend and was once arrested in Might 2024 after she accused him of stealing from her, consistent with U.S. officers and Russian government. A month later, a courtroom in Vladivostok convicted him and sentenced him to a few years and 9 months in jail. Black was once additionally ordered to pay 10,000 rubles ($115 on the time) in damages.
Black misplaced one attraction in a regional courtroom that upheld his sentence, however the pass judgement on within the ninth Court docket of Cassation on Monday agreed to scale back his sentence to a few years and two months in jail. Black’s protection had requested the courtroom to acquit him of creating threats of homicide and cut back the punishment for robbery, a request the pass judgement on partly sustained, consistent with the RIA document.
Russia has jailed quite a few American citizens lately as tensions between Moscow and the West grew. Some, like company safety government Paul Whelan, Wall Side road Magazine reporter Evan Gershkovich and trainer Marc Fogel, have been designated through the U.S. executive as wrongfully detained and launched in prisoner swaps.
A couple of others stay jailed in Russia on drug or attack convictions. They come with Robert Gilman, 72, who was once passed a three 1/2-year sentence after being discovered accountable of assaulting a police officer following a drunken disturbance on a educate, and Travis Leake, a musician who was once convicted on drug fees and sentenced to 13 years in jail in July 2024.
Black was once on depart and within the strategy of returning to his house base at Fortress Cavazos, Texas, from South Korea, the place he were stationed at Camp Humphreys with the 8th Military.
The U.S. Military stated Black signed out for his transfer again house and, “as an alternative of returning to the continental United States, Black flew from Incheon, Republic of Korea, via China to Vladivostok, Russia, for private causes.”
Underneath Pentagon coverage, carrier participants will have to get clearance for any world trip from a safety supervisor or commander.
The U.S. Military stated ultimate month that Black hadn’t sought such trip clearance and it wasn’t approved through the Protection Division. Given the hostilities in Ukraine and threats to the U.S. and its army, this can be very not going he would were granted approval.
Black’s female friend, Alexandra Vashchuk, advised newshounds ultimate yr that “it was once a easy home dispute,” right through which Black “was competitive and attacked” her, stealing cash from her pockets. She described Black as “violent and not able to keep watch over himself.”
U.S. officers have stated that Black, who’s married, met Vashchuk in South Korea.
Consistent with U.S. officers, she had lived in South Korea, and ultimate fall she and Black were given into some form of home dispute or altercation. After that, she left South Korea. It isn’t transparent if she was once compelled to go away or what, if any, position South Korean government had within the subject.
