On Thursday the Russian, the Moscow city court extended the arrest of U.S. citizen Paul Whelan, which the FSB accused of espionage. The hearing was held behind closed doors. The court did not consider it possible to replace the measure of restraint to softer. Lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov told reporters that the defense intends to file an appeal.
FRAMED? A lawyer for Paul Whelan, the American arrested in Moscow for espionage, accused Russian security services of setting him up as a judge Whelan ordered held and the former U. S. Marine at one point lashed out in court over lack of translation. https://t.co/Hkgg4NGTtY pic.twitter.com/5fhf9lSqWi
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) March 14, 2019
The court did not disclose the details of the charges. Earlier media reported that with Whelan at the time of the arrest, security officers found electronic media with sensitive information, the supposedly personal data of FSB officers. The Whelan claimed that he did not know about the contents of the flash drive and assumed there was a photo from the party.
«I think it was a joint provocation on the part of his friend and the Russian security services,» said Zherebenkov ABC News.
According to him, the defendant had been several years acquainted with a man at the meeting which he was arrested and from whom he received the flash drive.
When Whelan came back in December in Moscow for the wedding of friends, he asked a Russian friend to bring him pictures of his spring trips.
«He invited a friend to bring photos into your hotel room at the hotel «Metropol». Instead, apparently, the man deliberately brought the memory card with the «state secrets»», the lawyer said.
Zherebenkov said that about five minutes before Whelan had to see what was on the memory card, the agents of the Russian FSB raided the hotel room and arrested him.
Accused U.S. ‘Spy’ Paul Whelan Turns 49 in Moscow Prison With Freedom Nowhere in Sight https://t.co/supWyNOg1S pic.twitter.com/7PcZTC2xvE
— #TheResistance (@SocialPowerOne1) March 5, 2019
The arrest of Whelan, a Director of BorgWarner security (international company-provider of automotive parts from Michigan), took place immediately after his arrest in the United States Maria Butunoi. This allowed the media to assume that the businessman arrested as a hostage to exchange for Butina. However, the Russian official authorities deny that they have plans for such an exchange.
