Paul Whelan has ‘lost everything,’ after 3 years detained in Russia, former security executive’s family says
- Whelan is serving a 16-year sentence of hard labour at a prison camp in Mordovia after being convicted last year in a secret trial on espionage charges
- Whelan’s family expressed hope earlier this month that US President Joe Biden would press Russian President Vladimir Putin for Whelan’s release
On the three-year anniversary of Paul Whelan’s detention in Russia, US politicians and relatives of the Novi resident reiterated their pleas for his freedom.
The 51-year-old former security executive has been in custody in Russia since his arrest at a Moscow hotel in December 2018. He is serving a 16-year sentence of hard labour at a prison camp in Mordovia after being convicted last year in a secret trial on espionage charges that he has vehemently denied.
David Whelan, in a Tuesday statement, argued that his brother’s freedom and his life were stolen by the Federal Security Services.
“Now Paul sits in a Russian labour colony, waiting for justice after being convicted in a secret trial with secret evidence,” he said. “I’m sure he waits in vain. At least he can hope for his freedom.
“It’s not just the injustice of Russian hostage diplomacy,” he continued. “It’s the stolen years with our parents as they age, missing Christmases and birthdays and family time. It’s the stolen life, as one by one, Paul lost his job, his home, his ability to communicate and be with friends. He lost everything he’d known.”
David Whelan, at the time, had urged Biden to press for his brother’s release, noting Biden’s “representatives in the State Department and the National Security Council.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also signalled ahead of a meeting this month with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Stockholm that he would bring up the cases of Whelan of Michigan and Trevor Reed of Texas, another former Marine held in Russia.