WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Tuesday it was reassuring to see video footage of U.S. citizen Paul Whelan, a former Marine imprisoned in Russia on what the United States calls bogus espionage charges, and Whelan called on Moscow to release him immediately.
Whelan was arrested in 2018 in Russia, convicted in 2020 on espionage charges and sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony in Mordovia, a Russian region notorious since Soviet times for its penal colonies. He has denied these accusations.
“It was reassuring to see that he survived, and that is to use his brother’s words, ‘unbowed.'” White House spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre told reporters that Paul continues to display tremendous courage. Russia should release him immediately.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose, Writing by Andrea Shalal, Editing by Chris Reese)
