08 November 2021, 11:07

Russia and the United States are currently not negotiating the exchange of US citizen Paul Whelan, convicted of espionage, for any of the Russians in US prisons. This was announced by the American lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov, reports TASS…

On Monday, November 8, the Fourth General Jurisdiction Court of Appeal in Nizhny Novgorod by a recognized decision of the Supreme Court of Mordovia, which left without consideration the motion of Whelan’s lawyers to transfer him to the United States for further serving a sentence there.

According to Zherebenkov, “the exchange problem has stalled.” He noted that neither former US President Donald Trump nor the country’s current leader Joe Biden want to take on this responsibility.

Another lawyer for Whelan, Olga Karlova, said that the American’s defense is trying to help him with the tools provided for in the Criminal Procedure Code. She stressed that lawyers are not involved in the exchange negotiations, and according to the CPC there is the possibility of transferring Whelan to serve his sentence at home.

Previously became knownthat Wil tried to get information about the students of the FSB university, but he was detained by security officials.

Whelan holds US citizenship, as well as UK, Canadian and Irish citizenship. On December 28, 2018, he was detained by officers of the FSB of Russia in Moscow during an espionage action. Later, a criminal case was opened against the American under Article 276 of the Criminal Code of Russia (“Espionage”). ” The Moscow court found him guilty and sentenced him to 16 years in a strict regime colony.