On the fourth anniversary of Paul Whelan’s detention in Russia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he is committed to bringing him and all U.S. hostages and wrongful detainees home.
Blinken said Russian authorities subjected Whelan to a secret trial and sentenced him to 16 years in a Russian penal colony based on secret evidence, according to a news release issued Dec. 28.
“This year we brought home Americans from Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Burma, Afghanistan, Haiti and other countries. We will keep working every single day to bring home Americans who are wrongfully detained or held hostage around the world,” Blinken said in a Dec. 27 post on Twitter.
Whelan’s detention "remains unacceptable," and the State Department continues to push "for his immediate release at every opportunity," Blinken said in the release. As President Joe Biden told the Whelan family, the efforts to secure his release will not stop until he is back home with his family, according to Blinken.
Whelan, an ex-Marine, was discharged for bad conduct for using someone else’s Social Security number and writing bad checks, CNN reported in January 2019. He was accused of spying in Russia in 2018 and sentenced to a 16-year jail sentence in 2020. While serving in the Marines, Whelan traveled to Russia several times and posted about it on Russian social media. CNN reported he had used Russian social media for years.
In December, Paul Whelan was seemingly passed up in an opportunity to exchange prisoners with Russia, AP News reported. Instead, the U.S. traded Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for Brittany Griner, a WNBA player for the Pheonix Mercury who allegedly had a marijuana hash oil pen upon entering the country in February. The administration said Whelan wasn’t part of the deal because Russia treated his case differently than Griner’s “for totally illegitimate reasons.”
