A Moscow court has convicted the former American soldier Paul Whelan on Monday to 16 years in a prison camp for espionage. The 50-year-old Whelan, who, in addition to the American, the canadian, the Irish and British nationality, had been taken at the end of December 2018 in his room in the Moscow Hotel “Metropol” festival, a tradition-rich and well-heeled travelers and popular art-Nouveau jewel, opposite the Bolshoi theatre in the centre of the Russian capital. According to the secret service, the FSB, has its Headquarters in the Lubyanka in the direct vicinity of the hotel and on whose information the prosecution was based, had Whelan a USB memory Stick, on the secret data on an employee of a Russian security Agency were stored. According to the newspaper “Kommersant”, this is a sub-Department of the FSB.
Friedrich Schmidt
Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.
F. A. Z.
The man, the Whelan the data carrier handed over, worked according to the charge for the secret service; according to “Kommersant” it is a Major of the FSB Department of economic security. An investigation against the agents of the FSB for treason, nothing was known, on the contrary, he appeared, according to the defense as the main prosecution witness.
recruit Allegedly tried to Whelan in Russia, FSB agents and officials of the Ministry of defence, what witnesses disputed the defense in the process. “Paul knew 50 people in Russia, and only one speaks of espionage,” said Whelans lawyer after a court session in may. According to the defence, on the basis of a “provocation”, believed to be Whelan, he handed over the USB Stick are memory images to a common residence with the well-Known in the excursion of Sergiev Posad, near Moscow. Whelan explained the surgery with the request of the FSB-Known to make in the secret service earned and to avoid the repayment of 100,000 rubles (well 1270 euros), of which he had, Whelan, lent it to the man.
“Absurd political kidnapping”
found instead of The negotiating, as usual in such cases, to the exclusion of the Public. The punishment was 20 years, the prosecution had demanded 18 years in prison. Whelan, who had referred to his prosecution previously called “absurd political kidnapping,” said in his closing words, of a “political process”.
Whelan served according to media reports, in 2004 and 2006, in Iraq when the American Marines, was entrusted with the rod of the tasks. In 2008, he was dismissed because of theft allegations dishonorable. At the time of the Moscow arrest, he worked as a security chief of a U.S. automotive supplier. He used contacts to Russia and to Russians, with sparse knowledge of the language of his great enthusiasm for the country and its people no demolition action. On his page on the Russian social network “VKontakte” he congratulated Russian friends regularly to feast days, such as the “day of victory”.
several Times traveled Whelan to Russia, where he moved after details of his lawyer, to the attention of the intelligence services, to itself. In December 2018, Whelan had come according to his twin brother, to Moscow, to attend a wedding.
The American government had called on Russia, Whelan free. The latter complained several times about lack of medical care in the FSB prison Lefortovo. At the end of may the operated the Moscow Doctors with him successfully a hernia.
