American sentenced to 16 years in Russia on spying charges
LA TimesAmerican Paul Whelan has insisted on his innocence, saying he was set up. A Russian court Monday sentenced an American businessman and former U.S. Marine to 16 years in prison on spying charges, a verdict that drew an angry response from U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, who denounced the man’s treatment by Russian authorities as “appalling.” The Moscow City Court read out the conviction of Paul Whelan on charges of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in a maximum-security prison colony. Pompeo said “the United States is outraged” by Whelan’s conviction “after a secret trial, with secret evidence, and without appropriate allowances for defense witnesses.” ”We have serious concerns that Mr. Whelan was deprived of the fair trial guarantees that Russia is required to provide him in accordance with its international human rights obligations,” Pompeo said in a statement. Whelan’s brother David said lawyers will appeal the verdict, which he denounced as political, adding in a statement that “the court’s decision merely completes the final piece of this broken judicial process.” “We had hoped that the court might show some independence but, in the end, Russian judges are political, not legal, entities,” the statement said. “Russia failed to provide Mr. Whelan with a fair hearing before an independent and impartial tribunal; and during his detention has put his life at risk by ignoring his long-standing medical condition; and unconscionably kept him isolated from family and friends.” Whelan’s Russian lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, pointed at official Russian statements that signaled the possibility of an exchange of Whelan for Russians Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko, who are in U.S. custody.
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