Paul Whelan, the former U.S. Marine sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison on espionage charges, won’t appeal the decision, his lawyer told local media.
Whelan indicated after his sentence was announced last week that he would appeal the court’s decision, but his Russian lawyer said Tuesday that his team would not move forward with an appeal.
“We met at the detention facility today, discussed the issue, and decided against appealing the sentence, since he does not believe in Russian justice,” Whelan’s lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said. “He hopes for being exchanged for the Russians convicted in the United States in the near future.”
A prisoner swap has long been speculated, but the United States has not appeared open to the possibility.
“I’m in no position to discuss a prisoner exchange,” U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan said after Whelan’s sentencing. “What we’re looking for is not an exchange; we’re looking for justice for Paul.”
The U.S. Embassy said in November there was “no need to discuss a swap” because there was “no evidence, no crime.”
But Russian officials have floated the possibility of a trade since Whelan was arrested in December 2018 when he traveled to Russia for a wedding. He has been imprisoned in Moscow ever since.
At the time of his arrest, the presumed exchange was believed to be for Maria Butina, a Russian national who had studied in Washington, D.C., and pleaded guilty to conspiring to infiltrate conservative political circles for the Kremlin. But Butina has already served her prison sentence and was deported back to Russia in October.
Russian officials have also mentioned swapping Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer arrested in Thailand and extradited to the U.S. in 2010. Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot caught smuggling drugs into the U.S., has also been floated.
Whelan’s brother David wrote in an email last week that their family “wouldn’t oppose” a swap, but “Paul has said he is more Mr. Bean than Mr. Bond.”
“I do not believe that any government would exchange Mr. Bean for The Merchant of Death,’” he wrote, using Bout’s nickname.
Before his arrest, Whelan was unwittingly given a flash drive containing classified information by someone he thought was a friend, according to his lawyer. Whelan has insisted he is not a spy and was set up.
