DAY 1,213Michael "Travis" Leake · American citizen · U.S. Air Force veteran
Finding 03
A statement before any detention record
Police took his first statement with no lawyer present, in the 43 hours before any formal detention record was made.
The charging decision records his detention at 7 p.m. on June 6, 2023. The formal detention record is dated 2:20 p.m. on June 8, and Travis wrote on it that he disagreed. The lead operative took the statement on June 7, in between, through an interpreter appointed that day: a 23-year-old student.
Travis withdrew his statements in writing on September 28, 2023. His lawyer told the trial court they "were not written by him, he signed his signatures, being under pressure."
The State Department's own human-rights report on Russia says that "judges usually did not suppress confessions taken without a lawyer present."
Source: Court file, Vol. 3, l.d. 15 [PDF p. 627]; Vol. 1, l.d. 133-134, 142-143 [PDF pp. 162-163, 171-172]; Vol. 3, l.d. 38-41 [PDF pp. 650-654].
Cite this
Free Travis Leake, "Finding 03: A statement before any detention record," https://freetravisleake.com/the-case/03-statement-before-detention-record/, updated September 30, 2026.