Andre Khachaturian, an American national, was arrested in Moscow for arms trafficking.
An American national has been arrested in Moscow for arms trafficking, a member of the Russian capital’s official prison monitoring commission told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency on Friday.
American Andre Khachaturian was arrested in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on December 26, while traveling from the United States to Armenia, after Russian police found a GLOK-17 pistol and cartridges, said Konstantine Kim.
According to him, Mr. Khachaturian was then charged with “arms trafficking”, an offense punishable by sentences of up to 7 years in prison.
Andre Khachaturian pleads not guilty, saying he worked in the past for a private security company and had the authorization issued in the United States to possess this weapon, underlined Mr. Kim.
The American, of Armenian origin, speaks only English and Armenian and has difficulty communicating with the staff of the detention center where he is incarcerated and with his fellow prisoners, he said.
Another US national arrested
Mr. Khachaturian also suffers from chronic illnesses and “there are concerns about his health”, said Mr. Kim, adding that the Prisons Supervisory Commission has recommended that he be transferred to a prison hospital.
On Thursday, Russia already announced that it had arrested another American national, a former diplomat Marc Fogel, for drug smuggling.
According to the Russian Interior Ministry, Mr Fogel was detained by customs officers as he arrived at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow with his wife on a flight from New York. During customs control, marijuana and hashish oil were found in his luggage, according to the ministry.
Several Americans are currently detained in Russian prisons and vice versa, while relations are at an all-time low between Washington and Moscow amid the Ukrainian crisis.
Russia has in the past raised the possibility of negotiating a prisoner exchange, while arms dealer Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot convicted of cocaine trafficking, are being held in the United States.
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