LOS ANGELES, July 15 /ITAR-TASS/. Russian citizen Roman Seleznyov, who was arrested in Maldives on U.S. warrant and relocated to a jail on Guam, has been placed into a tiny cell and has been denied any communications with his family, a diplomat at Russia’s Consulate General in San Francisco told Itar-Tass Monday.
He said Russian diplomats had two meetings with Roman July 14.
“Upon the results of conversations with him and with an official of the U.S. court marshals service the Russian consulate workers called the attention of the American side to the fact the arrested Russian citizen had been place into unacceptable conditions,” the diplomat said.
“The very building of the prison badly wants repairs,” he said. “Roman Seleznyov doesn’t have access to a telephone to communicate with his family, the quality of meals leaves much to be desired, and the quality of medical services is extremely low.”
“At present, Roman feels apprehensive for his health - tomorrow he will run out drugs that were prescribed to him back in Russia and an American analogues prescribed to him has serious side effects.
“The diplomats continue insisting on improvement of the conditions, in which the Russian citizen is kept, and they will demand his earliest possible transition to a clinic, even though this is possible only after decision of a court,” the diplomat said.
Roman Seleznyov was detained July 5 on the Maldives upon a demand from the U.S. and placed to a jail on Guam under U.S. jurisdiction, as Guam has the status of an overseas dependency.
U.S. authorities suspect him of hacking and selling data on U.S. consumers’ credit cards.
A court in the State of Washington issued charges in absentia to him in March 2011, accusing him of 29 offenses, which implies a jail terms lasting several decades and a penalty of several million U.S. dollars.
In addition, a criminal case against Seleznyov has been instituted in Nevada. He suspected of involvement in a criminal groupings that engaged in extortions.
Russian authorities assess the spiraling story around Seleznyov as a yet another unfriendly step on the part of Washington. His relatives stress that his is a person with an impaired health and he needs special medical care.