VLADIVOSTOK. Oct 28 (Interfax) - U.S. serviceman Gordon Black, convicted of theft and murder threat in Vladivostok, has said he is hoping to return to the home country via the prisoner swap program.
A delegation of U.S. diplomats visited Black at the pretrial detention facility. Black said in a video aired by the Vesti Primorye channel that diplomats said nothing about his possible return to the United States. There is no information about this opportunity, he said.
Black said he was hoping to return to the United States as part of the prisoner swap program and added that a decision on his return had to be made by the U.S. government.
He also said he would vote for Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election.
Black added he had no complaints about custody conditions.
On June 19, the Pervomaisky District Court in Vladivostok sentenced Black to three years and nine months in a general penitentiary and granted the victim's civil claim for 10,000 rubles.
U.S. citizen Black, 34, was charged with threatening murder and theft causing substantial damage. Investigators established that Black was accused of grabbing his girlfriend, whose apartment in Vladivostok he lived in from April 2024, by the neck in a quarrel in May. The woman said she took his actions as a threat to her life. Following this, Black, who had no money of his own, stole 10,000 rubles from the woman's wallet and spent it on his needs, including a hotel room where he was found and detained.