Former US Marine Whelan jailed for continuing to fight for transfer from Russia

[ad_1]

MOSCOW, Nov. 8 (Reuters) – Former US Navy Paul Whelan, convicted by Russia on espionage charges, will continue to fight for his transfer to the United States despite the loss of a lawsuit on Monday, his lawyer told the Interfax press agency.

Whelan, who holds US, UK, Canadian and Irish passports, was sentenced last year to 16 years in prison. He denies espionage and said he was set up in an undercover operation. Washington has demanded his release.

Whelan had challenged a regional court’s refusal to hear his case for being sent home, but an appeals court in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, about 400 km (250 miles) east of Moscow, ruled the initial decision legal.

Ahead of the hearing, one of Whelan’s lawyers, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said negotiations between Washington and Moscow to try to grant his release were no longer taking place, but his team would continue to seek deportation by d ‘other channels.

“According to my information, all negotiations, including on a possible exchange, extradition or pardon of Whelan are not currently underway, everything is on hold,” Zherebenkov said.

“That’s why we are trying to do it this way. I hope our justice system will kick him out.”

However, Zherebenkov said extradition was unlikely without the recognition of the Russian sentence by the US side.

Whelan has said he hopes to be released as part of a prisoner swap, a topic President Vladimir Putin raised with his US counterpart Joe Biden at a summit in June. Read more

Moscow said Whelan was caught red-handed with classified information in a Moscow hotel room where Federal Security Service agents arrested him on December 28, 2018.

Whelan said he was in Russia for a wedding and on vacation and was settled by a Russian man whom he believed to be a friend.

Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Alexander Marrow; edited by Tom Balmforth and Mark Trevelyan

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[ad_2]