Previous U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was detained and accused of espionage, retains a signal as he stands inside of a defendants’ cage all through his verdict listening to in Moscow, Russia June 15, 2020. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
MOSCOW, Sept 8 (Reuters) – A Russian court designs to consider a request by a previous U.S. Marine imprisoned in Russia to be transferred to the United States to serve his sentence there, his attorneys mentioned on Wednesday.
Russia convicted Paul Whelan – who retains U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports – of spying in June 2020 and sentenced him to 16 yrs in jail. He denied the cost and explained he was established up in a sting procedure, and Washington has demanded his release.
Attorneys Olga Karlova and Vladimir Zherebenkov informed the Interfax information company that the listening to into Whelan’s likely transfer was set to get place on Sept. 27.
Karlova later informed TASS news company the court docket had postponed the listening to and that the date “will be recognised in because of study course.”
Whelan – who Russia reported was caught with a laptop flash travel containing categorized information and facts – had stated he hoped to be freed as element of a prisoner swap.
President Vladimir Putin reviewed the matter with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden at a summit in June, but Whelan and Trevor Reed, yet another previous U.S. Maritime, stay at the rear of bars in Russia.
Whelan, who is getting held in a superior-safety jail eight hours’ push from Moscow, denounced his trial as a sham and claimed he thought the drive, specified to him by a Russian acquaintance, contained vacation pics.
Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy and Alexander Marrow Writing by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber enhancing by John Stonestreet
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