Paul Whelan, a former Marine, showed defiance throughout his detention
He was serving a 16-year sentence after an espionage conviction that the U.S. government called a farce.
Paul Whelan, center, accused of espionage and arrested in Russia in December 2018, is escorted to a hearing in 2019. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)
By Alex Horton
Updated August 1, 2024 at 5:39 p.m. EDT|Published August 1, 2024 at 11:31 a.m. EDT
The landmark prisoner swap between Russia and the United States on Thursday included Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine incarcerated for more than five years after an espionage conviction that he and the U.S. government long maintained was a farce.
Whelan, arrested by Russian authorities in December 2018, was among more than two dozen people freed in the largest prisoner exchange between the two adversaries since the Cold War. He spent 2,043 days in detention, his family said.
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Russia prisoner swap
Follow live updates on the largest prisoner exchange since the height of the Cold War. Officials of the United States, Russia, Germany and other countries met on an airfield tarmac in Turkey and swapped at least two dozen people.
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In Russian custody, the former Marine maintained an air of defiance during his trial and lengthy incarceration, holding up signs in the courtroom’s glass defendant cage proclaiming his innocence and blasting the proceedings as a “sham trial.” His at times aggressive self-advocacy underscored his and his family’s concern that, despite long-running diplomatic efforts to secure his release, Washington had prioritized the cases of other Americans imprisoned there.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/08/01/paul-whelan-russia-prisoner-swap/
