“While we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. “Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s,” he said. Did Biden provide any updates on Whelan?īiden said in televised remarks from the White House on Thursday that the swap was “not a choice of which American to bring home.” Marine Paul Whelan was detained in Moscow in 2018 on espionage charges, found guilty in a closed trial and is now nearly three years into a 16-year prison sentence. diplomats said was unfair and opaque, Whelan, now 52, was convicted of spying in 2020, and sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security. He also spent time in solitary confinement for about a month, according to CNN. After a trial held entirely behind closed doors that U.S. Whelan previously told CNN in 2021 that during his prison sentence he was working in a “sweatshop.” What has Whelan’s imprisonment been like? citizen said that he's innocent and was in. Bean on holiday.”ĭavid Whelan, Paul Whelan’s brother, told CNN that his brother had been in Russia for a wedding and had made several trips to Russia in the past. A former Marine Paul Whelan was arrested in Russia on espionage charges. “Russia says it caught James Bond on a spy mission,” Whelan said before his sentencing, the BBC reported. Whelan and the American government have denied the charges against him. Whelan previously said he was framed and that a person he thought was his friend unknowingly planted a USB drive with classified information in his pocket, according to the BBC. In 2020, Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in prison by Russian authorities on espionage charges. particularly after the 2018 poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. Whelan, a US Marine veteran, former sheriff’s deputy and corporate security expert, holds American, Irish, British, and Canadian citizenship.īetween 19, Whelan served several tours in Iraq as an active-duty reservist. Whelan, right, an American arrested in Russia in December 2018, at a court in Moscow on Monday.
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