Russia charges former marine with espionage
Auto parts company rep may serve up to 20 years in prison if convicted
MOSCOW— Russian authorities have brought espionage charges against a U.S. citizen, Paul Whelan, who if convicted faces a prison sentence of as much as 20 years, his lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said in an interview Thursday.
Whelan, whose arrest was announced Monday, is being held in solitary confinement in the notorious Lefortovo Prison in Moscow.
The head of global security for the Michigan auto parts maker BorgWarner, Whelan, 48, has emerged as a curious figure in the days since his arrest. A former Marine who was courtmartialed for several misdeeds, including larceny and passing bad cheques, he has been travelling to Russia since at least 2006.
Whelan was born in Canada and it is believed he also has Canadian citizenship. Ottawa confirmed a Canadian had been arrested in Moscow, but did not specifically name Whelan, citing privacy concerns.
Whelan’s family said he had been in Russia to attend the wedding of a friend from the Marine Corps who was marrying a Russian woman at the storied Metropol Hotel.
He was familiar to numerous Russians who have known him or interacted with him on social media over the past decade. They said he seemed to pop up every six months or so and en- joyed travelling around Russia, especially by train. Not all of them met him in person, so it remained unclear how often he had visited. Unusually for an occasional visitor to Russia, Whelan had an account on Vkontakte, the Russian version of Facebook, for about a decade. The account showed that he was last active at 4:55 p.m. on Dec. 28, the day the Federal Security Service, Russia’s domestic security and intelligence agency, said he was arrested.
Rosbalt, a Russian news agency close to the security services, quoted an unidentified intelligence source Wednesday as saying it was considered odd that Whelan did not use the social media site to try to meet women. Rather, he sought to ingratiate himself into the lives of his contacts on the site.
A quick survey of those contacts indicated that most seemed to be men with some sort of connection to academies run by the Russian navy, the Defense Ministry or the Civil Aviation Authority.
There has been widespread speculation that Russia seized Whelan to exchange him for Maria Butina, a Russian citizen jailed in the United States. Butina, 30, pleaded guilty Dec. 13 in U.S. District Court in Washington to conspiring to act as a foreign agent. She admitted to being involved in an organized effort, backed by Russian officials, to lobby influential Americans in the National Rifle Association and the Republican Party. She faces six months in prison, most likely followed by deportation. An espionage conviction in Russia carries a sentence of 10 to 20 years.
Russia has denied that Butina acted in any official capacity. While there is no apparent connection between her case and Whelan’s, Russia has a history of arresting foreigners to exchange them for its citizens held elsewhere. Whelan’s lawyer said he would welcome an exchange, but it would take time. The shortest timetable for the legal case would be six months to a year, he said, after which the issue of an exchange might be broached. Such a deal would require a pardon from President Vladimir Putin.
“This is a long process,” Zherebenkov said. “I myself hope that we can rescue and bring home one Russian soul.”
Rosbalt’s intelligence source said Whelan had been apprehended during a meeting with a Russian citizen in his room at the Metropol Hotel. He is ac- cused of trying to recruit this person to obtain classified information about staff members at various Russian agencies, the account said.
Whelan was arrested five minutes after receiving a USB stick containing a list of all the employees at a classified security agency, the report said.
His lawyer, Zherebenkov, said he had not seen all the evidence, but he suspected the American had been under surveillance for some time.
“I presume that he is innocent because for now I haven’t seen any evidence against him that would prove otherwise,” said Zherebenkov, who said Whelan would petition the court for bail. At this point, he has been ordered held for two months, a standard procedure.
Zherebenkov, a high-profile criminal defence lawyer, said he had spent much of Wednesday with Whelan and found his client in an upbeat mood despite the long legal road that he faces. “I was surprised to see him being so confident,” he said.
He said it was standard procedure for a new inmate facing espionage charges to be held in solitary confinement.
Whelan’s Vkontakte account, the Russian version of Facebook, was last active at 4:55 p.m. on Dec. 28, the day he was arrested