A Moscow court reduced the drug trafficking prison sentence for Russian-born U.S. citizen Robert Woodland by three years, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing his lawyer.
Woodland, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen who worked as an English teacher in Moscow, was arrested in January 2024 and accused of “illegally acquiring, storing, transporting, manufacturing and processing" 47 grams (1.6 ounces) of mephedrone.
A Moscow court sentenced Woodland to 12 years and six months in prison last July. A judge rejected an appeal of that sentence in November.
On Tuesday, a judge ruled to reduce Woodland’s sentence to nine years and six months for an unknown reason, his lawyer Stanislav Kshevitsky told Reuters.
Woodland is among at least 10 Americans jailed in Russia following a series of U.S.-Russian prisoner swaps dating back to last summer, according to the news agency.
The 33-year-old dual national was born in the Russian city of Perm. He was adopted by an American family at the age of two, state media reported in 2020.
Woodland said he moved to Russia to find his birth mother, with whom he was eventually reunited on Russian state television.
Kshevitsky had said that Woodland pleaded guilty to drug possession but denied the distribution charges.
“He is a drug addict… who stole from another drug addict,” the lawyer told reporters after an appeal hearing last November.
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