Russian Embassy: Americans Whelan and Reed arrested for serious crimes
Photo: Yuri Gripas / Reuters
The Russian Embassy in the United States responded to the State Department's call to release the Americans Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed from Russian prisons. The Russian diplomatic mission wrote about this on Twitter in a commentary on the post of State Department spokesman Ned Price.
Russian diplomats reminded Washington that, unlike Russians who are often detained and convicted in the United States for trumped-up reasons, Whelan and Reed were arrested for serious crimes. The embassy also accompanied their commentary with hashtags calling for the release of Konstantin Yaroshenko, Roman Seleznev and Viktor Bout, who are being held in American prisons.
Paul Whelan was sentenced in Russia to 16 years in prison on espionage charges. He has citizenship of the United States, Great Britain, Canada and Ireland, the defense wants him to serve time at home. However, the Court of Appeal recognized the refusal of the Supreme Court of Mordovia to consider the issue of extradition of the convicted person to the United States as legal.
On July 30, 2020, the Moscow Golovinsky Court sentenced Trevor Reed to nine years in prison. The American was found guilty under Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Application of violence to a government official, dangerous to life or health”). It was established that on August 16, 2019, residents of a house on Leningradskoye Highway called the police to calm down a drunk man who had quarreled with several women. But towards the arriving policemen, Reed also showed aggression. On the way to the department in a company car, he attacked the police – tore the driver's uniform and hit his colleague.
