Joy is not without a mix in the United States despite the release of Brittney Griner this Thursday. It is true that the basketball player, sentenced in August to nine years in prison by the Russian courts, will return home nine months after her arrest in Moscow for possession of cannabis oil, which she used for therapeutic purposes and validated with a medical prescription. But her compatriot Paul Whelan, a former Marine, for her part is still being held in his penal colony in Mordovia, eight hours east of Moscow.
And the ex-soldier, arrested in December 2018 in this same city and sentenced in 2020 for espionage – a charge he rejects – to 16 years in prison, did not hide his disappointment during a phone call with the CNN television network.
Paul Whelan was careful to emphasize that he was happy with his compatriot’s release, but expressed discontent with his own fate, believing that his government had failed.
“I am deeply disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the fourth anniversary of my arrest approaches,” he said.
Before adding: “I was arrested for a crime that never existed.”
bad surprise
Brittney Griner owes her release to a trade with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. However, Paul Whelan not only seems to have been aware of these negotiations, but he also thought that he was included in them. Asked by CNN, he confirmed that he was surprised to find out that he was not part of this market.
In the speech he gave on television this Thursday to welcome the upcoming return of Brittney Griner to American soil, Joe Biden did not forget Paul Whelan. “Unfortunately, Moscow is treating Paul’s case differently from Brittney’s, and while we were unable to secure Paul’s release, we will never give up,” he said.
Biden’s promise
From his cell, the affected man seemed to echo the presidential statements and acknowledged that the accusation of espionage placed his file “at a higher level” for Russian justice. However, he assured CNN that he had been misled: “They made me believe that things were going in the right direction, that the governments were negotiating and that something was going to happen very soon.”
Perhaps you can hang on to this last promise from Joe Biden at the end of his speech: “I guarantee that we will continue to work for the release of Paul Whelan.”
Source: BFM TV
