Another American has been imprisoned in Russia on what looks to be trumped-up charges. A Texas man has been found guilty of abusing his two sons by a Russian court. The case had been investigated in Texas and found to be without merit.
David Barnes, 66, has been detained since January 2022 in Russia. Barnes, a resident of The Woodlands, a suburban community north of Houston, traveled to Russia to gain legal clearance to see his sons. His ex-wife, Svetlana Koptyaeva, fled the United States for Russia with their two children.
Barnes was found guilty of abusing his two sons between 2014 and 2016. He was sentenced to 21 years in a high-security Russian penal colony. Gleb Glinka, his attorney, plans to appeal the conviction. He told the Barnes’ family that he would be filing for a preliminary appeal on Thursday.
“Frankly I’m horrified,” Glinka told ABC News outside the courthouse. “There was almost no evidence that the court could base that verdict on.”
That “almost no evidence” part of the attorney’s comment throws me. What is meant by “almost”? I tend to think that was just a poor choice of words, that an attorney would know better than to be unclear that Barnes is innocent. Texas investigators cleared him.
It looks to be a bitter divorce and child custody issue.
Barnes, a native of Huntsville, Alabama, has been detained in Moscow since January 2022. His bench trial began in the fall of 2022 but occurred on nonconsecutive days and did not conclude until Monday. Barnes testified in his own defense near the end of the trial.
He was arrested by Russian authorities a few weeks after his family said he traveled to Moscow to see his children and apply for visitation rights in a Russian family court.
Barnes’ children had allegedly been taken out of the U.S. in 2019 illegally by his Russian ex-wife Svetlana Koptyaeva during a custody dispute, causing Interpol to issue global yellow warning notices to announce that the boys were missing.
“I didn’t steal anyone,” Koptyaeva said outside the courthouse on Tuesday. “I was just protecting my kids.”
Imagine a bench trial going on, sporadically, since the fall of 2022. The verdict came down on Monday.
Barnes had been trying to keep his ex-wife from taking the boys and fleeing to Russia, which she did.
Barnes’ trip to Russia and subsequent arrest came after a custody battle played out in a Montgomery County courtroom, where during their divorce proceedings Koptyaeva accused Barnes of sexually abusing his then 7-year-old and 4-year-old sons — abuse claims that Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and Texas Child Protective Services found no evidence to support.
“They were extremely outrageous allegations … that just had no credibility to them, whatsoever,” said Kelly Blackburn of the district attorney’s office said in a previous report.
Koptyaeva at the time also filed a petition to gain full custody of the children.
Barnes suspected she would leave the country and filed an emergency motion requiring her lawyer to hold onto the children’s passports in 2018, William Harrison, Barnes’ lawyer for his custody case, said in a previous Chronicle report.
A Montgomery County (TX) court judge ruled that there would be joint custody of the children in March 2019. That is when Koptyaeva fled with the boys, first to Turkey and then to Moscow. Interpol got involved and issued yellow notices for the children. A yellow notice is a global alert for a missing person.
Barnes was granted full custody in December 2019. Koptyaeva was criminally charged with interference with child custody and remains wanted in the United States. Texas authorities and the agencies that investigated the allegations were not consulted by Russians during the trial.
Koptyaeva alleges that Barnes abused the children and they experienced suffering and pain. That is why she says she left the United States. Barnes denies the allegations. Barnes told reporters that he feels justice will triumph. His family in Alabama hopes he will be included in a prisoner swap.
Unfortunately for Barnes, Joe Biden doesn’t have a good record of negotiating for Americans held abroad. Mad Vlad Putin is acting with impunity, detaining American citizens in Russia because he sees Joe Biden as a weak man. Putin wants to retaliate for U.S. support in Ukraine. American prisoners are leverage for him as he seeks the release of Russian criminals.
I hope Barnes is released soon but history does not indicate that he will be released any time soon.