The case of Paul Whelan – Russia condemns U.S. citizens for espionage to 16 years in prison

The case of Paul Whelan – Russia condemns U.S. citizens should be recruited for espionage to 16 years in prison, The 50-year – old American Paul Whelan in Russia, informants, and secret information is being gathered evidence, there is no. Paul Whelan (left), former U.S. Navy, leaves the court in Moscow in August 2019. Keystone/AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

A Russian court has sentenced the since almost one and a half years detained a U.S. citizen Paul Whelan for espionage to 16 years in prison. The court in Moscow considered the agent activity of the 50-Year-old on Monday as proven, as the Agency reported to Interfax.

The sentence fell short of the request of the public Prosecutor, had demanded 18 years in a prison camp. Whelans lawyer Vladimir Scherebenkow had repeatedly criticized that in the procedure no evidence. He wants to challenge the judgment, as he said on Monday.

In his closing remarks before the court in Whelan had said last that he was innocent. Also, witnesses confirmed that Whelan enlisted neither informants or secret information have to be collected, said Scherebenkow. Whelan had been arrested in December 2018. The case is likely to strain the already tense relations between Moscow and Washington.

In March, the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow, John J. Sullivan, after a visit to Whelan, the conditions of detention of massively criticized. Whelan was detained without evidence and get because of a potentially life-threatening illness without proper treatment. In the presence of his ambassadors colleagues from the UK and Ireland, Sullivan had demanded a fair and transparent procedure. Whelan, citizens of these three States as well as Canada.

Whelan is said to have been caught in the act after presentation of the Russian domestic secret service FSB as a spy in the act. He is said to have received the secret data on a USB Stick. According to the defense Whelan was but one of his many visits to Moscow, rather, that it was only private content.

again and again between the US and Russia much publicized espionage cases. Whether it is always real or perhaps just perceived agents, and is hardly verifiable. In the past, Russia and the US have agreed on an exchange of prisoners.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, himself a former service chief, who had intelligence warned last year at a FSB meeting in front of foreign espionage attacks on his country. Thus alone 2018, more than 460 of spies were unmasked.

(SDA /sep)