The Trump administration and lawmakers from both parties slammed Russia’s sentencing of American security executive Paul Whelan to 16 years in prison on spying charges Monday, after what Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called an “appalling” and “secret trial” in Moscow.
Mr. Whelan, a 50-year-old former U.S. Marine with American, British, Irish and Canadian citizenship, has denied being a spy and claimed he was set up by Russian authorities who arrested him in December 2018 at Moscow hotel where he was attending a friend’s wedding.
The case has become a flashpoint in Washington-Moscow relations and complicated President Trump’s hopes of forging a more cooperative relationship with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Russian officials claim Mr. Whelan was caught with a USB drive containing classified information. Mr. Whelan has said it was slipped into his pocket moments before his arrest by a Russian security agent.
The defendant stood in the dock in Moscow City Court on Monday holding a sign that read “Sham Trial” as his sentence was being read, the Russian press reported.
U.S. officials tried unsuccessfully over the past 18 months to intervene, while some believe Mr. Whelan is the victim of a Russian intelligence scheme to trigger a swap of Russians convicted by the U.S.
Mr. Whelan has had health problems while in custody — recently undergoing a hernia treatment — and Mr. Pompeo said Russian authorities “put his life at risk by ignoring his long-standing medical condition” and “unconscionably kept him isolated from family and friends.”
New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the Whelan sentence “a disgrace.” Lawmakers from both parties and from Mr. Whelan’s home state of Michigan also condemned the Russian move.
The unified American response flew in the face of what one former U.S. intelligence official called a Russian plot to use Mr. Whelan as a pawn to sow division in Washington.
Shortly after Mr. Whelan’s arrest, former CIA Moscow station chief Daniel Hoffman said the charges were likely contrived to ramp up political hype surrounding the separate case of convicted Russian operative Maria Butina, who had pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to acting as a Kremlin agent infiltrating U.S. conservative groups such as the National Rifle Association.
Ms. Butina was released from U.S. federal prison and deported to Russia in October.
Leonid Slutsky, the head of foreign affairs committee in the Russia’s lower house of parliament, said Monday that Moscow is open to discuss an exchange for “Russian citizens who have remained in the U.S. prisons on unfounded charges and in inhumane conditions.”
“Political will is required for reaching such agreements,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the matter Monday. However, Mr. Whelan’s lawyer and his brother have said they believe his case is political and have expressed hope the U.S. will take action to gain his freedom.
“The Russian Federation wouldn’t talk about releasing Paul until he was convicted,” David Whelan told The Associated Press on Monday. “Now that that has happened, we hope that the U.S. government will speak to the Russian government. We will have to continue to treat it as a political case, which is what it is, and seek a political solution for his freedom.”
Mr. Whelan’s Russian lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, cited Russian official statements that Mr. Whelan could be exchanged for Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko.
Mr. Bout, a Russian arms trader, is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. for a 2011 conviction on charges he helped sell millions of dollars of weapons to Colombian rebels. He insisted he was a legitimate businessman. Mr. Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot, is serving a 20-year sentence for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the United States.
Russian officials and lawmakers have called the convictions of the two men politically motivated and pushed for their release.
Mr. Yaroshenko’s wife, Viktoria, also voiced hope on Monday that her husband could be exchanged for Mr. Whelan, the Interfax news agency reported.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
• Lauren Toms can be reached at lmeier@washingtontimes.com.
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