American Whelan, convicted of espionage, ended up in solitary confinement due to ignorance of the Russian language tongue for two weeks was in a punishment cell. On Monday, November 8, RIA Novosti reports with reference to his lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov.
According to media reports, Whelan is currently awaiting a hearing in the Nizhny Novgorod Court of Appeal on a complaint against the refusal of the Supreme Court of Mordovia to consider the question of the expulsion of an American from Russia to the United States. Before the meeting, Zherebenkov described Whelan's problems with the language barrier to journalists.
In particular, a month and a half ago Whelan tried to express something to the FSIN officers, and this could be considered an insult. And for this he was sent to a punishment cell. But in fact, Whelan was misunderstood, since he does not know Russian well, and the FSIN officers do not know English well.
Despite the two weeks spent in the punishment cell, Whelan was positive. But today, on November 8, the Fourth General Jurisdiction Court of Appeal in Nizhny Novgorod recognized the refusal of the Supreme Court of Mordovia to consider the issue of the extradition of Paul, convicted of espionage, to the United States. The American will remain to serve his term in Russia.
Earlier, prosecutor Sergei Lukoyanov said that convict Whelan tried to get information about applicants from the educational institution of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia, but was detained.
Paul Whelan was sentenced in Russia to 16 years in prison on espionage charges; the FSB announced his arrest in 2018.