SAN ANTONIO – It may be a while before we learn what the three American citizens freed in a prisoner swap endured during their imprisonment in Russia.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and former Marine Paul Whelan arrived in the U.S. Thursday night.
Their plane touched down at Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, Maryland. When they stepped off the plane, their families, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris greeted them.
From there, the ex-prisoners and their families then boarded another flight, which arrived in San Antonio around 3:10 a.m. Friday.
Gershkovich, Kurmasheva and Whelan headed to Brooke Army Medical Center for further medical evaluation. Typically, the U.S. government brings formerly detained prisoners to BAMC to begin reacclimating to normal life.
Dr. Bruce Holl, associate professor of Russian Literature at Trinity University, said Russian prisons are known for being “harsh” compared to their Western counterparts.
“When you see a prisoner on trial, [that person] will be held in a cage, observing and not just sitting on a bench on the front row like they would in an American courtroom. [They’re] literally in a cage. It just seems inhumane,” Holl said.
“There are political prisoners in these prisons, but there are also criminal prisoners, and murderers and rapists and felons. And there are prison gangs, just like you hear about in American prisons,” Holl added.
Of the three, Whelan was imprisoned for the longest time. He had been behind bars since 2018, on espionage charges that he has denied.
Gershkovich and Kurmasheva were jailed in 2023.
Related coverage from KSAT: