FILE PHOTO: Stephen Hubbard, a U.S. citizen accused of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine against Russia in the course of a military conflict, is seen inside an enclosure for defendants on a screen during a video link to a hearing in a court building in Moscow, Russia October 7, 2024. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) -A 73-year-old American jailed by Russia as a mercenary for Ukraine protested his innocence when his U.S.-based legal team and family finally tracked him down in April, months after he vanished into the vast Russian prison system, they said.
Stephen Hubbard, a retired schoolteacher, was sentenced last October to almost seven years in a penal colony after a court found him guilty of serving in a Ukrainian territorial defence unit against Russian forces, tasked with manning a checkpoint.
