Russian Court to Consider Transferring Jailed Ex-Marine to US: Lawyers

Russian Court to Consider Transferring Jailed Ex-Marine to US: Lawyers
Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was arrested for alleged spying, listens to the verdict in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court in Moscow on June 15, 2020. (Sofia Sandurskaya, Moscow News Agency photo via AP)
Reuters
9/8/2021
Updated:
9/8/2021

MOSCOW—A Russian court plans to consider a request by a former U.S. Marine imprisoned in Russia to be transferred to the United States to serve his sentence there, his lawyers said on Wednesday.

Russia convicted Paul Whelan—who holds U.S., British, Canadian, and Irish passports—of spying in June 2020 and sentenced him to 16 years in jail. He denied the charge and said he was set up in a sting operation, and Washington has demanded his release.

Lawyers Olga Karlova and Vladimir Zherebenkov told the Interfax news agency that the hearing into Whelan’s potential transfer was set to take place on Sept. 27.

Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was arrested for alleged spying in Moscow on Dec. 28, 2018, stands in a cage as he waits for a hearing in a court room in Moscow on Aug. 23, 2019. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)
Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was arrested for alleged spying in Moscow on Dec. 28, 2018, stands in a cage as he waits for a hearing in a court room in Moscow on Aug. 23, 2019. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

Karlova later told TASS news agency the court had postponed the hearing and that the date “will be known in due course.”

Whelan—who Russia said was caught with a computer flash drive containing classified information—had said he hoped to be freed as part of a prisoner swap.

President Vladimir Putin discussed the topic with his U.S. counterpart President Joe Biden at a summit in June, but Whelan and Trevor Reed, another former U.S. Marine, remain behind bars in Russia.

Whelan, who is being held in a high-security prison eight hours’ drive from Moscow, denounced his trial as a sham and said he thought the drive, given to him by a Russian acquaintance, contained holiday photos.