The U.S. authorities demand to release the American citizens jailed abroad (
https://www.state.gov/secretary-michael-r-pompeo-at-a-pres…/). They are promising to impose sanctions against “guilty governments”, should their compatriots die due to the coronavirus.
U.S. Department of State
The United States Department of Justice
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The U.S. authorities demand to release the American citizens jailed abroad (https://www.state.gov/secretary-michael-r-pompeo-at-a-pres…/). They are promising to impose sanctions against “guilty governments”, should their compatriots die due to the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the situation with COVID-19 in the American correctional facilities keeps deteriorating rapidly (https://www.bop.gov/coronavirus/). Many inmates are infected, some of them have deceased. There is hardly any medical assistance for the convicted, neither there is coronavirus testing. The prisoners are preponderantly left without individual sanitary equipment and facial masks due to a shortage in them.
The most notable human rights organizations in the U.S. are alarming the critical situation in jails (https://www.hrw.org/…/covid-19-shouldnt-be-death-sentence-p…#). They call on the release for the vulnerable categories of inmates (https://www.sentencingproject.org/…/bipartisan-coalition-c…/).
On March 24 Sergey Lavrov delivered a message to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo (https://www.mid.ru/…/asset…/D2wHaWMCU6Od/content/id/4094236…). The Minister urged to consider the possibility of return to the home country for all the Russian citizens incarcerated in the U.S. In addition, I personally addressed to Attorney-General W.Barr and head of the Federal Bureau of Prisons M.Carvajal on the destiny of my compatriots (https://www.facebook.com/…/a.493759737501…/1286416334902087/). I drew their attention to those individuals, who have serious diseases, who were convicted of non-violent crimes and to those who have already served the substantive part of their jail sentences.
We are again calling upon the U.S. authorities to demonstrate mercy and good will. Free the Russian citizens. Their life and health are under the threat.
Anatoly I.Antonov
Source: Facebook Embassy of Russia in the USA
