US citizen Michael Travis Leake has been sentenced to 13 years in a Russian prison for “attempted drug smuggling”, Moscow’s court service said.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Mr Leake, a former paratrooper and musician, tried to sell drugs he had obtained from an accomplice between January and June 2023.
It was not clear how Mr Leake, who is one of about a dozen Americans currently held in Russian detention, pleaded.
Washington has urged its citizens to leave Russia immediately, citing the threat of arrest amid the highest tensions between the two countries since the Cold War.
Mr Leake was accused of packaging the drugs for sale before giving them to another defendant in the case, a Russian woman named Veronika Grabanchuk.
Citing the investigation, Russian news agency Interfax reported that both Mr Leake and Ms Grabanchuk made four attempts to sell over 40g of mephedrone.
In June, Russian state television broadcast footage from Mr Leake’s trial that showed him locked in a metal cage.
In a separate video shared online, he said he “didn’t know” why he was detained.
Appearing confused, he said he did not believe he had done what he was accused of, because he did not know what the charges were.
A musician and music producer in his early 50’s, Mr Leake was a member of Lovi Noch, meaning catch the night, an “American fronted rock band” based in Moscow. He is reported to have lived in Russia for many years.
Credit: bbc.com
