Paul Whelan assaulted in Russian prison, brother says
Mike Brest
Video Embed
Paul Whelan, an American detained in a Russian prison, was assaulted by a fellow inmate on Tuesday, his brother said in a statement.
“Paul was working at a sewing table early afternoon on November 28,” David Whelan said in an emailed statement. “A new prisoner blocked part of the production line and Paul asked him to move out of the way. After repeated requests, the prisoner hit Paul in the face, breaking Paul’s glasses in the process, and attempted to hit him a second time. Paul stood up to block the second hit and other prisoners intervened to prevent the prisoner continuing to attack Paul.”
HOW PATRICK MCHENRY’S CONVICTIONS HELD THE HOUSE WHEN THERE ‘WAS NOTHING TO GUIDE US’
Paul Whelan, David Whelan said, described the incident to their parents as “relatively minor,” while David Whelan told the Washington Examiner that his brother “seems to have gotten some first aid.”
“I’m not sure if it was the attacker’s fist or Paul’s glasses that caused the damage but Paul is expecting facial bruising from the strike. And his glasses were broken,” David Whelan added, noting this was the first time he was physically assaulted at the IK-17 prison, though he was attacked once at the Lefortovo pretrial detention in Moscow.
Paul Whelan was arrested in late 2018 while in Russia for a wedding and was sentenced to 16 years in prison in June 2020 on an espionage charge, which both he and the U.S. government strongly reject.
Russian state-controlled news agency Russia Today released a video in August showing Paul Whelan wearing a Russian prison uniform in rare footage of him. Paul Whelan appears in different parts of the facility with other inmates using a sewing machine and at the cafeteria.
The Biden administration agreed to two prisoner swaps last year with Russia, one that returned former Marine Trevor Reed last April and another that returned WNBA player Brittney Griner last December, but Paul Whelan was excluded from both deals.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
U.S. officials said after Griner’s release that the Kremlin did not make Paul Whelan available in any possible swap and that they view his detention differently given the espionage charge despite the spurious charges. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained last March and charged last April on espionage charges while reporting on Russia’s defense industrial complex.
“We ain’t giving up,” President Joe Biden said Thursday in Nantucket, Massachusetts, regarding the prospect of their release.