A judge in Belarus has sentenced the American director of a U.S. nonprofit educational-exchange program to five years of hard labor after his conviction on drug charges. Charles Perriello reportedly pleaded guilty to using and possessing marijuana but denied charges of drug trafficking. Mr. Perriello was arrested in June when officers of the domestic security services, still known as the KGB, entered his apartment in Minsk while acting on a tip. Officers said they saw him smoking marijuana and then found 46 grams of the drug during a search. [continues 109 words]
The American director of the Belarus office of an educational-exchange program was detained last week on drug charges. Charles Perriello was observed smoking marijuana late Thursday by officers of the domestic security services who, acting upon a tip, had entered his apartment in Minsk, security officials said. A subsequent search yielded an undetermined amount of the drug, said Col. Fyodor Kotov, a spokesman for the services, which have retained their Soviet-era name and initials, K.G.B. Mr. Perriello, who was being detained Monday in a jail in Minsk, the capital, has worked in the country since 1999. He heads the exchange office of the American Council for Collaboration in Education and Language Study, which is supported in part with funds from the U.S. government. The council was established by the American Council of Teachers of Russian. [continues 243 words]
An American Fulbright scholar was sentenced on Friday to more than three years in a Russian prison after being convicted of possessing and distributing marijuana. Investigators testified that John E. Tobin was carrying a matchbox that contained marijuana on January 26 when he was detained by police as he left a nightclub in Voronezh, about 300 miles southwest of Moscow. A subsequent search of his apartment reportedly yielded more of the drug. Mr. Tobin's lawyer contended, however, that the drugs had been planted on his client, a native of Ridgefield, Conn., who was conducting postgraduate research at Voronezh State University. [continues 215 words]
