Photo: Public domain / US Embassy & Consulates in Russia / Wikimedia Commons
For: EFE
Tuesday, November 19
US calls on Russia to release an American detained for three years
WASHINGTON – The United States reiterated on Tuesday its request to Russia to release the American citizen Paul Whelan, detained three years ago today in a Moscow hotel for alleged “espionage activities”, and indicated that this matter remains a “vital priority.”
State Department Spokesperson, Ned Price, recalled in a telephone press conference that Whelan was arrested three years ago by the Russian authorities.
“He traveled to Russia as a tourist and was jailed and sentenced on false charges,” Price complained.
Whelan, sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage, he was accused by the Russian authorities of having received from an acquaintance a memory stick that allegedly “contained the complete list of secret service workers. ”
The American denied all the accusations and described the case as “political kidnapping” , while his family assured that he had traveled to Moscow to attend a wedding.
Price indicated that the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has expressed the need for Russia to release Whelan and Trevor Reed from the United States “unconditionally and immediately.”
Reed, a student and former US Navy infant who arrived to Russia on a tourist visa and lived in his girlfriend’s apartment, was convicted in June 2020 to nine years in prison for assaulting some policemen .
Reed, who according to the police was arrested after a complaint from neighbors about an argument with two women and resisted their arrest, did not admit his guilt and sustained Before the judge he did not remember what happened because he was drunk.
“His release continues to be a vital priority for the United States,” Price concluded.
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– The strange case of Paul Whelan, the former US Marine who was convicted of espionage in Russia
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– Paul Whelan, the former US Marine, who sentenced Russia to 16 years in prison for “espionage”