Germany – DW, July 31, 2024
Paul Whelan, a US citizen detained in Russia, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a well-known Russian dissident, were both out of contact with their lawyers. The news comes amid movement of prisoners in Russian penal colonies.
A lawyer for Paul Whelan, a US citizen who has been imprisoned in Russia for over five years, said she is currently unable to confirm his immediate whereabouts as rumors of a prisoner swap between the US and Russia grow.
Whelan, a former US Marine who is also an Irish, British and Canadian citizen, was arrested in Moscow in 2018 on suspicion of spying, charges that both he and the US government deny.
“I receive requests from journalists from various international agencies asking me to clarify whether I know Paul’s whereabouts, as there are rumors of a possible exchange,” Whelan’s lawyer Olga Karlova told Russia’s Interfax news agency.
“I have sent a request to the [prison] colony administration, but I’m not getting an answer,” she said.
At least seven other prisoners held in Russia were reported to have been moved from their jails or prison colonies in the past few days, fueling speculation of an imminent prisoner exchange, according to Russian media reports.
At the same time, lawyers for jailed Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza said they couldn’t visit him at a prison hospital for a second day on Wednesday.
Kara-Murza, a dual Russian-British citizen, was convicted by a Russian court last year of treason for publicly denouncing Moscow’s full-scale war in Ukraine. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
