BUTNER /North Carolina/, November 15. /TASS/. The US administration could provide better medical care and food to Russians jailed in the United States, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov told reporters after visiting Russian national Roman Seleznev in prison in Butner, North Carolina.
"I believe that the US authorities could do more, at least helping the people who find themselves in such difficult conditions, both in terms of food and medical care. Roman’s illnesses are only getting worse in prison," Antonov pointed out. "There are inhumane conditions for Roman there. They consider him a highly dangerous criminal for some reason," he added.
According to Antonov, it took Russian diplomats some time to get to visit Seleznev. "We bought tickets and our team was ready to depart but about three weeks ago, we were denied a meeting at the very last moment. Surprisingly, they said that I could create a security issue," the envoy noted.
He emphasized that Russia had raised the issue of arranging diplomats’ meeting with Seleznev in consultations with US officials. Antonov said that they had talked through a glass partition due to the coronavirus prevention procedures at the facility.
Seleznev case
Roman Seleznev was detained at the international airport of the Maldives’ capital of Male on July 5, 2014, and taken to a jail on the island of Guam, an unincorporated territory of the United States. Guam’s district court refused to release the Russian and ruled that he should be deported to Seattle.
In August 2016, a jury in Seattle convicted Seleznev of 38 out of 40 counts of cybercrime. He was charged with hacking into the databases of some 200 US companies. On April 21, Seleznev was sentenced to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay $170 mln.
In September 2017, prosecutors in the US state of Georgia, who had also brought charges against Seleznev, announced that the Russian citizen had pleaded guilty to colluding to carry out a cyberattack on the Worldpay company providing payment services to banks. In Nevada, Seleznev was accused of having been involved in crimes since 2009 as part of the Carder Internet group whose members committed computer crimes linked to stealing credit card numbers and personal information of bank clients.
In December 2017, the US Department of Justice announced that Seleznev had been handed a 14-year prison term based on charges brought against him in Georgia and Nevada and would serve the sentence alongside his 27-year prison term.