Russia convicts ex-Marine, orders 16-year sentence

American Paul Whelan, a former Marine, was convicted by Russia of spying on Monday, receiving a 16-year prison sentence in a maximum-security prison colony.

Whelan pleaded not guilty to the espionage charges and claims he was set up in a sting operation orchestrated by Russia’s intelligence services. He was visiting Russia for the wedding of a friend when he was arrested in December 2018 after receiving a USB flash drive that allegedly contained classified

Russian information.

Whelan’s trial began March 23 but the proceedings have been closed to the public and many of the case’s details have emerged through his lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov.

“This is slimy, grubby, greasy Russian politics. Nothing more, nothing less,” Whelan said just before the sentencing. Prosecutors had asked for an 18-year prison sentence.

Zherebenkov said Whelan would appeal the verdict. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow denounced Whelan’s trial as unfair and said no evidence for his alleged crimes was provided. In Russia, a maximum-security prison colony is akin to a labor camp.

Whelan, 50, is the director of global security for a Michigan-based auto supplier. He was born in Canada to British parents and grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports. The U.S. ambassador in Moscow, John Sullivan, described the allegations against Whelan as spurious and the court case as a “mockery of justice.”

Whelan has said he is a victim of “political kidnapping” and asked President Donald Trump to intervene on his behalf. “Mr. President, we cannot keep America great unless we aggressively protect American citizens wherever they are in the world,” he said from inside a glass enclosure in Moscow City Court in June last year.

Whelan said he has been threatened, abused and unable to access medical care during his imprisonment in a czarist-era Moscow prison. After the verdict, his brother said in a statement that the family will continue “to fight for Paul’s release” and that they were “looking to the U.S government to immediately take steps to bring (him) home.”

“We had hoped that the court might show some independence but, in the end, Russian judges are political, not legal, entities,” the statement said.