President Joe Biden’s June summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin will take place as Michigan native Paul Whelan “spends his 900th day as a Russian hostage,” his family said Tuesday.
“We will be able to update him on the summit,” David Whelan, the sibling of the former Marine, wrote in an email to journalists and activists. “We hope that we will be able to share news that the US and Russian Federation are at least engaged in a positive way on the many issues they share. Perhaps the one dearest to our family — Paul’s ongoing wrongful detention — will move closer to a solution.”
Whelan is one of two Marines languishing in Russian prisons based on allegations that American officials have deemed baseless. Their cases have been entangled in the broader deterioration of relations between Washington and Moscow, with the potential to inaugurate an era of hostage diplomacy by Russian officials.
“Our family is hopeful that this continued dialog initiated by the Biden Administration will create an opportunity for Paul’s release,” David Whelan wrote.
RUSSIA SENDS FORMER MARINE TO PRISON ‘ESTABLISHED AS PART OF THE GULAG UNDER STALIN’
Paul Whelan was seized in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years imprisonment on espionage charges, which were based on evidence that his family says was planted by a “former friend” who owed him money. His family believes Russia wants to exchange him for high-profile Russian criminals supported by the Kremlin.
“The Russians are arresting American citizens in order to create trade opportunities,” David Whelan told the Washington Examiner in 2019. “There’s really no plausible reason for him to be there, other than that the Russian government is trying to get some sort of payoff, essentially extortion or ransom for holding on to an American.”
Trevor Reed, another Marine whose detention has drawn condemnation from Biden’s team, was sentenced to nine years in prison last year after being accused of assaulting police officers.
“The trumped-up charges brought against Trevor are clearly politically motivated,” a bipartisan group of lawmakers said while unveiling a congressional resolution condemning the conviction. “His sentence was based on evidence that was so utterly ludicrous that it was met with laughter in the courtroom, including from the Russian judge. We urge the Vladimir Putin regime to put a stop to this ordeal and release Trevor immediately.”
Whelan has suffered from sleep deprivation tactics inflicted by the prison guards, according to family accounts, but his brother gave a somewhat more positive update on his health in the latest bulletin to supporters.
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“Paul has received a COVID-19 shot of unknown provenance,” David Whelan wrote Tuesday. “Despite his continued inability to get any medical information in English, someone named N. Meltin from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested his medical records for unknown reasons. Paul seems to be in good health and a repetitive stress injury on his elbow was seen to by prison doctors.”
