Paul Whelan: The abnormal case of the ex-marine jailed for spying in Russia

picture copyright Getty photographs

In Room 3324 of Moscow's Metropol lodge, Paul Whelan was getting dressed for a chum's wedding when Russian intelligence officers burst in.

The American disappeared with out trace for 3 days unless his twin stumbled throughout a information record announcing that his brother had been charged with espionage.

That was New 12 months's Eve 2018 and the beginning of a case that would embroil four western governments and pile drive on relations with Russia that had already sunk to a put up-cold war low.

pretty much 18 months later, Whelan has been convicted of spying - receiving Russian state secrets and techniques - after a brief trial carried out entirely behind closed doors.

the former US Marine - who also has British, Irish and Canadian citizenship - has all the time insisted on his innocence, and in court this week he described himself the victim of "greasy, slimy Russian politics".

As his family step-up their appeals to bring him home, offi cials in Moscow are already hinting at a probable prisoner swap adding to suspicions that the man from Michigan is a pawn in a political game that has yet to play out.

complicated Justice

On 15 June, it took the chief judge just 1 minute 20 seconds to attain the key words in his verdict.

"Moscow metropolis court docket…finds Paul Nicholas Whelan responsible," he read from the typed sheet, including that the sixteen-year sentence could be served in a high-protection facility for probably the most dangerous offenders.

The choose then became to address the defendant, who became standing in a glass cage guarded by two FSB security officers in black balaclavas. watching from the picket court docket benches, socially distanced and in clinical facemasks, had been the ambassadors of the USA, UK and Canada.

"Whelan, do you be aware the sentence?" he asked.

photo copyright Getty pictures graphic caption Paul Whelan's sentencing in court

The American, whose glasses, aspect parting and blue sweater that he wore to each courtroom look, gave him the seem to be of a neat, core-aged librarian, appeared returned on the judge blankly.

His Russian wasn't up to this.

"Nothing's translated, Your Honour," the 50-yr-historic protested, sending an interpreter scurrying over to clarify his destiny. The three judges swept off the podium and out of courtroom.

It changed into a flat, abrupt end to a spy trial that had taken only a handful of closed hearings. Moscow's Covid-19 lockdown had cloaked court cases in an excellent thicker layer of secrecy, with both press and public barred from the constructing correct up unless the final verdict.

James Bond or Mr Bean?

the first time I noticed Whelan in courtroom, smartly over a year in the past, he arrived with a vulnerable smile and a brown cardboard field hugged to his chest containing a packed prison lunch. He was flanked by using FSB guards, faces lined in order that they could not be recognized.

State television crews, hovering for his or her pictures in the hallway, have been already relating to the accused man as "the American undercover agent".

Paul Whelan could be introduced for multiple custody hearings and appeals over the months and we squeezed in nearly each time. despite the fact we were handiest allowed to attend for the outlet remarks, we managed to grab several conversations with him.

That first day, even though - in a cage, with a dozen cameras expert on him - he seemed stressful and spoke little.

almost two months had passed because his arrest, and he spoke of he turned into coping "nice". however when I requested for his side of the story, his eyes flicked against the guards. "If I do that, i could be in a foul manner," Whelan told me, warily. "They don't want me to talk with you."

A member of his defence team has on the grounds that published that he changed into coming under excessive force from the FSB to confess, interrogated a couple of instances without his legal professionals current.

"[They'd say] issues like, 'there is no hope for you, tell us the certainty. you are a undercover agent, you are going to be convicted,'" Olga Karlova told me final summer season.

The American refused and as his time in custody changed into extended time and again, he gradually grew bolder in court docket.

photo caption Paul Whelan arrives handcuffed and holds a personal remark up in court during his trial

Whelan, who at the time of his arrest became the head of world security for a US-based mostly car ingredients enterprise, begun to denounce the can charge of espionage as "ridiculous", and declare that he was being tried by a "kangaroo courtroom". He'd put together a speech for each session, writing it out on a sheet of paper vetted and stamped with the aid of the reformatory censors.

"Russia says it caught James Bond on a spy mission," Whelan introduced sooner or later, as we waited for the judge. "in fact, they kidnapped Mr Bean on break."

by using then, we might discovered that the American had visited Russia dissimilar times. On his latest go back and forth, in December 2018, he became in Moscow for the wedding of a fellow ex-Marine to a Russian lady. however Whelan never made it to the ceremony. He turned into arrested in his room, simply hours after showing probably the most different wedding guests around the grounds of the Kremlin.

photo copyright Instagram picture caption Paul Whelan's Instagram posts

So, at a court docket listening to late final yr, I raised my voice over a wall of bailiffs to ask him as soon as once more what had came about.

He paused a bit, before calling back.

"i'm now not allowed to provide you with details, however i will be able to tell you i used to be set-up. I did not commit against the law," Whelan talked about, telling me that a friend had became-up at his inn that night unannounced.

When Whelan was arrested, the FSB found a USB drive in his pocket containing the categorised suggestions it alleges he had requested. He now told me his pal had planted the gadget in his pocket, with out him realising.

"That grownup turned into an FSB officer. he is somebody I've popular for ten years," he revealed for the primary time.

"there is fully no rationale he may still had been in my room and no rationale he may still have given me any sort of machine."

When the judge back to court, to extend his dwell in penal complex as soon as once again, Whelan's frustration erupted.

"i can talk louder than you, Your Honour," he shouted from the cage. "As my cousins in England would say, this is finished bollocks."

At that, the judge ordered the tv cameras to be faraway from courtroom. Filming turned into barred at all future hearings to stop the press taking pictures to any extent further protests.

'pink-exceeded'

The Russian govt declared Paul Whelan guilty lengthy ago.

simply two weeks after his arrest, foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared that the American had been caught "crimson-surpassed" conducting a "concrete, unlawful act".

The case became immediately large news that grew extra when it emerged that Whelan was a citizen of four nations.

Born in Canada to British folks of Irish heritage, he later moved to the USA entitling him to assorted passports in consequence.

photograph caption Paul Whelan turned into a US police officer when he become more youthful

In early 2019, the drama of his now multi-countrywide arrest become constructing towards a adverse political backdrop, with mutual sanctions over the Ukraine disaster and East-West tension now not felt considering Soviet instances.

9 months earlier, the united kingdom had accused Russia of making an attempt to poison Sergei Skripal, a former double-agent, on the streets of Salisbury. on the same time, Washington changed into nonetheless accusing Moscow of meddling in its elections.

So when Whelan's plight grew to be public, there become hypothesis that he could be the human collateral

The FSB turned into already dripping details of the case it would make in court docket.

The Russian Rosbalt news agency quoted a source claiming that Whelan became working at once for US intelligence, tasked with acquiring an inventory of personnel at "one of Russia's secret associations". It observed that suggestions became the item of "extreme pastime" to the am erican citizens, and that Whelan had been cultivating capabilities contacts, online, for over a decade.

spy trials in Russia don't seem to be simplest heard in secret, the defence attorneys must signal non-disclosure agreements masking the total case. So no facts - the wire taps or surveillance pictures the case is reportedly in response to - has been made public.

In Whelan's case, there is the brought nuance that his defence crew have been appointed and paid for by means of the Russian state. His household determined no longer to change them, reasoning that a invoice of over $a hundred and fifty,000 (£121,000) become "tons of elements for what would were zero impact".

"Secrecy, provocation and falsification, this is the arsenal of our opponents," says Ivan Pavlov, a human rights attorney who has long gone up in opposition t the FSB in lots of espionage circumstances.

He usually represents Russians accused of promoting secrets to the West and says the varie ty of such situations has grown drastically on the grounds that the political local weather became cold once more in 2014.

The lawyer warns that the FSB is the "mightiest secret carrier, not most effective in Russia," and makes use of its personal specialists to determine any proof for the courtroom.

"if you've obtained mixed up in anything like this, then you definately're within the most complicated story of your life," Ivan Pavlov says. "It could be very tricky to mount a defence."

The Russia connection

Paul Whelan's travels in Russia started greater than a decade in the past.

"this is 'Lubyanka' where the KGB has our spies locked in the basement!!", he joked in 2007 on a personal web site.

The photo turned into of the headquarters of Russia's notorious protection capabilities, now primary as the FSB.

photo copyright Getty photographs photo caption Lubyanka jail building, pictured in 2000

Eleven years later, its officers would pressure him there for interrogation.

The photo dates from Whelan's first commute to Moscow, made whereas he changed into serving with the united states armed forces in Iraq. That year he advised a Marines news website that he'd taken talents of a programme that funded a two-week wreck overseas for those on lengthy deployments.

Whelan had plumped to visit Russia, explaining that, for a "single man like me" the scheme turned into "a chance to go back and forth all the way through the area…and journey the diversity of tradition".

since his arrest, the Marine Corps has disclosed that he was discharged in 2008 for unhealthy conduct, a revelation that "fully shocked" his twin brother David.

"He changed into always completely fine about the [Marines] event. there is a Marines' flag flying appropriate under the American flag on my folks' property the entire time," David instructed the BBC from Canada.

picture copyright Whelan family photograph caption Paul Whelan as a US marine and the entrance gate at his parents' property

And yet, unknown to these closest to him, Paul had been court docket-martialled for making an attempt to steal more than $10,000 from the U.S. govt.

It changed into with this scandal breaking in the back of the scenes, that he first headed for Moscow.

"Having grown up all over the bloodless war, it became a dream of mine to seek advice from Russia and meet some of the sneaky Russians who had stored the western world at bay for thus long!!" Whelan joked lower back then on his website, which has due to the fact been archived.

Its pages document the shuttle with shots of tourist spots and captions encumbered with exclamation marks.

A decade later, he would message home consistently from journeys to Russia exhibiting equivalent basically child-like ask yourself at new discoveries.

The website content material does assist later descriptions of Paul Whelan by using contacts, colleagues and family as an enthusiastic world traveller who "made fri ends relatively a lot all over the place" and had an activity in Russian tradition.

"I bear in mind making small talk once and i spoke of, 'You travel a great deal for work, where do you travel for enjoyable?'", a former colleague, Skotti Fietsam, instructed the BBC.

"He observed Russia!" and he or she remembered her shock at his reply. "He observed it's captivating and he liked the bloodless and he had reasonably a number of pals there."

a whole part of his ancient web site is dedicated to the lovely comic strip persona Cheburashka, describing the large-eared, vast-eyed creature as "one respectable aspect to come back from the Soviet period". a further hyperlink results in a selfmade e book to the Cyrillic alphabet and a few simple first words in Russian.

graphic copyright Alamy photograph caption sketch character Cheburashka

The pages additionally display his first friends within the Russian military.

Russia would later insinuate, by way of anonymous sources quoted in the press, that the CIA had selected candidates for Paul Whelan to domesticate for intelligence. It became important, one such record stated, that he selected handiest to befriend men and never "fairly Russian women".

Whelan turned into pals with younger servicemen within the US, notwithstanding, too. His web page describes his "respect and admiration" for 3 Naval Academy graduates who'd simply joined the Marines.

He didn't cover his hobbies and encounters.

In 2009, he took his personal folks to talk over with the nation, the place they've advised me they met a couple of of his younger pals in militia uniform.

photograph copyright Whelan family photograph caption Paul Whelan along with his folks in Moscow

in the meantime, the front page of his website invited visitors to click on on the photograph of a younger Russian soldier to gain knowledge of greater about his "movements and army carrier". The hyperlink ended in Maxim, who defined that his new buddy, Paul Whelan, changed into assisting together with his English which he planned to examine at college.

The Russian described both spending a few days "travelling Moscow" collectively, ingesting sushi and caviar-stuffed pancakes.

pals in atypical places

Whelan went on to are seeking for out more Russian chums, the usage of the nation's social networking service VK among others.

A scroll via their profiles, soon after his arrest, printed just about all to be guys - most significantly more youthful than him. Some do have clear armed forces connections - including photos in uniform - though now not all, and no-one who replied to my messages had seen any motive to doubt Whelan's reasons.

One responded to tell me he'd been a student and grocery store night-shield when the American first made contact. both met in grownup for just a few hours in 2008 when Whelan turned into travelling Russia, visiting assorted friends in a considerable number of cities.

"I don't accept as true with that Paul is a undercover agent," the person wrote to me. "I… do not know the rest what [sic] can be pleasing to foreign secret agent."

image caption Paul Whelan photographed with a chum

a further man gave his pal a sightseeing tour of his own town that same 12 months. He has no obvious link to the military himself and joked to me by means of VK that the American "failed to request to look anything else suspicious :))"

A Moscow hairdresser, meanwhile, was contacted with the aid of Whelan on Instagram round 5 years returned. They talked about overseas commute and not ever met.

One VK chum still in the militia informed me the American first messaged when he become a cadet and both have chatted on-line two or 3 times a week ever on account that.

"He appeared high-quality and changed into taken with our nation, its heritage and our traditions and americans!" the man replied to my enquiries, including that his personal interest become in the ex-Marine's time in Iraq.

He had no theory his pal had been arrested. "No method? he is the kindest soul! If he is a spy, then i'm Michael Jackson!!!!" he wrote.

Betrayal?

the person Whelan accuses of framing him turned into one among his oldest contacts in Russia. he is also a serving intelligence officer.

Defence attorneys disclosed some particulars of the men's relationship early on in the case, including how the American had visited his chum's residence in Sergiev Posad outside Moscow for "saunas and kebabs" the iciness before his arrest.

They additionally stated he owed Whelan around eighty,000 roubles ($1,147; £930) which the FSB claimed changed into boost price for intelligence. The defence group mentioned the Russian had requested a mortgage to buy a gift for his wife, as a part of his entice.

picture copyright Getty photos photo caption the town of Sergiev Posad is home to the religious centre of the Russian Orthodox Church - the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius

The Whelan household ultimately discovered a reputation and even a graphic.

As he still works for the FSB, I can not establish him so i could call him "Dmitry". but Whelan chatted brazenly to family on email about his buddy, together with which "FSB college" he'd attended.

'''Dmitry' says howdy!", Whelan breezily told his fogeys after one Facetime chat with the Russian. It seems atypical behaviour if he became attempting to recruit the man for US intelligence.

or not it's viable he even added his folks to Dmitry on their 2009 trip to Russia, they can not make sure.

In messages home from Moscow in January 2018 - a free holiday to use up his air miles - the American described touring eating places together with his agent-chum, as neatly because the museums of the Kremlin and even a British pub.

A yr later, simply days before his arrest, Mr Whelan took "Dmitry" and another man for Christmas dinner at a restaurant opposite his hotel. He sna pped a picture of his guests, "Dmitry" smiling with a tumbler of wine and his fork raised over a juicy steak.

Labelling it "Dinner with Tovarishi", or comrades, he messaged the photo to a 3rd Russian chum - at the same time as he turned into supposedly discussing how to transfer classified intelligence.

"it all sounds incredibly naïve now," his brother concedes of the relationship, after at last acquiring the passwords for Paul's computers and trawling via his info.

He says his brother's VK messages have been deleted after his arrest.

"He has chums in different nations with a defense force history, I think it became a social component," David Whelan argues. "The FSB element wasn't a huge deal, until he become entrapped."

photograph copyright Getty photos image caption Paul Whelan's twin brother David

Paul Whelan's legal professionals have now demonstrated that he turned into being watched for a while and his communications monitored.

A contemporary newspaper file claimed that the American had come to FSB attention over a decade ago when, as Kommersant's source says, he "actively" began contacting Russian servicemen.

but the espionage case became based mostly absolutely on Whelan's ties to 1 officer, with the entire proof gathered in 2018 almost immediately earlier than his arrest.

"Had this been an independent court docket, they would have reached only one resolution - no longer responsible," his attorney, Vladimir Zherebyonkov talked about after the decision. He observed the facts turned into only ever examined through "incompetent and fascinated events".

photo copyright Getty photographs graphic caption Paul Whelan's legal professional Vladimir Zherebyonkov

Ivan Pavlov believes Whelan's declare he become framed is "at all times possible" with FSB intelligence officers.

"The temptation is excessive: to upward push in rank; for advertising; for more stars for your epaulettes," the legal professional says. "this is how FSB careers are made; individuals upward push on the returned of such cases, like mushrooms after the rain."

Officers usually bide their time, he explains, calling it "calf-rearing", earlier than a target is culled.

in that case, it seems that Paul Whelan become blind to the danger.

in one electronic mail change all through his early 2018 trip to Moscow, a relative joked: "don't get into any trouble we can't get you out of, haha!"

"I can be with guys from the FSB, so may still be ok!", the American wrote lower back.

undercover agent mania

The surge in East-West tensions has made espionage each greater complicated - and extra pressing - in contemporary years.

After the Salisbury poisoning in early 2018, more than 100 Russian diplomats identified as intelligence brokers have been expelled from embassies around the globe in a co-ordinated act of protest. Russia replied with a replicate mass expulsion of Western diplomats.

at the time, one ambassador told me the stream had hit Moscow's spying capability challenging. however the equal is possibly true in reverse.

there have been signals of issues even earlier.

nearly precisely a year earlier than Paul Whelan's arrest, a Norwegian staying on the equal important Moscow hotel turned into arrested and charged with espionage. A retired border protect, Frode Berg, admitted to delivering envelopes of cash and spy guidance on behalf of Norwegian defense force intelligence agency.

image copyright Getty images graphic caption Norwegian citizen Frode Berg in a Moscow court, January 2019

His arrest and 14-12 months reformatory sentence led to a scandal lower back domestic when it emerged that civilians and not using a diplomatic cover had been getting used for top-possibility espionage. there were even allegations that Norway changed into under pressure to gain the suggestions from its partners in Nato.

Former CIA officers have brushed aside any recommendation that Whelan can be involved in some thing similar, working without diplomatic immunity: the idea, floated by way of one retired Russian officer, that his arrest changed into a "notable failure" of US intelligence.

the U.S. Embassy and executive were very vocal about Whelan's detention. "Paul Whelan is innocent," Ambassador John Sullivan informed me emphatically remaining week, calling the trial a "mockery of justice".

graphic copyright Getty photographs photo caption US Ambassador John Sullivan outside courtroom after Paul Whelan's sentencing

In Frode Berg's case, the Norwegian govt stayed quiet.

And whereas Paul Whelan's dishonourable discharge from the Marines indicates there are constituents of his life of which even his family unit have no idea, his supporters element to the theft cost as a good.

"The intelligence neighborhood would under no circumstances use someone with that previous, peculiarly in a situation like this if you happen to'd be despatched into a really, very complex ambiance," argues Ryan Fayhee, the family's attorney in the US who cites intelligence contacts from his days prosecuting instances of counter-espionage.

"It simply wouldn't happen," Fayhee believes. "have confidence is probably the most important issue in case you are obtainable, residing on the part."

Lefortovo life

One friend who failed to want to be named advised me he become "a little quirky", and favored to "push the road somewhat". He questioned no matter if some comment, or joke might were disastrously misconstrued. Whelan's own defence attorney once hinted at that chance.

Skotti Fietsam, his former colleague, found Whelan critical and supportive, however additionally laughed at how he would insist on the usage of heavily armed guards when he visited the manufacturing unit she managed in Mexico, even posting them backyard eating places while they ate.

"I have no idea if it turned into machismo; to blow their own horns," Fietsam referred to. "but it surely become very extraordinary."

On Whelan's historic web page, alongside Harry Potter books and war and Peace, his informed analyzing includes a long listing of bloodless struggle thrillers by way of Tom Clancy.

but there may be nothing glamorous about reformatory life in Lefortovo. perhaps Whelan enjoyed the aspect of danger that came from flirting with the FSB, putting out with intelligence officers.

image caption The excessive wall and barbed wire of Lefortovo jail

"The porridge, some days it goes direct to the bathroom," Frode Berg wrote to me from northern Norway of existence within the FSB penal complex. he is now lower back domestic after a prisoner-swap.

His own cellmate in Lefortovo used to comic story that the inmates have been fed dog food within the mornings.

"We never see or meet different prisoners. once we go to a meeting, prisoners have been hidden from every other," Berg describes the lonely hobbies of existence inner the ok-form penitentiary, whose tall outer walls now butt-up in opposition t Soviet house blocks.

picture copyright Getty photos graphic caption The ok-shaped constructions of Moscow's Lefortovo penal complex

Paul Whelan is being held within the renovated wing, where the Norwegian says there's hot water within the cells now as well as a fridge, tv and bathroom. but the house measures 9.5 rectangular metres between two prisoners and exercise is one hour a day on the roof.

Cellmates get to bathe as soon as a week, together, in the basement. One mild continues to be on within the cell 24/7.

Whelan and his family say letters have been held back for months by way of investigators and parcels back. He wasn't allowed a phone call domestic for sixteen months. And adding to his discomfort turned into chronic pain from a hernia that finally strangulated, leading to emergency surgery.

Swap-store?

Sentenced to a excessive-safety reformatory, Paul Whelan might not be leaving Lefortovo simply yet.

His legal professionals do plan to enchantment against the decision however other, larger forces are already at play. The minute the American became convicted, the focus shifted to a likely prisoner swap.

"They need Yaroshenko and Bout, it's who they want again," Paul Whelan claimed, naming two high-profile Russian prisoners in the united states because the court bailiffs ushered me and my microphone out of the room. "that's the most effective motive they've done this," he alleged.

legal professional Vladimir Zherebyonkov was soon asserting the identical, now claiming the FSB had been planning a swap all along.

"No-one's hiding that, all and sundry talks about it, all of the officials," he advised the press.

So the prisoner who has all the time called himself a political hostage is now seeking to the politicians to do a deal for his unencumber.

the entire indications so far indicate Moscow is opening with a excessive bid - Viktor Bout, a weapons broking serving 25 years in the united states and Konstantin Yaroshenko, sentenced to 20 years for medicine smuggling.

image copyright Getty pictures picture caption Undated photo of Konstantin Yaroshenko (left) and Viktor Bout in 2010

On Wednesday, the foreign Ministry spokeswoman called on Washington to show "humanity" and liberate Yaroshenko "and different unjustly convicted" Russians.

the USA has noted many times both men were convicted in open and fair trials.

"We are not trying to find an change, we are seeking justice for Paul," US Ambassador John Sullivan insisted, emerging from the decision at Moscow metropolis court to a wall of microphones and cameras.

Whelan's family are already pushing for action after a sentence that his brother, David, referred to as "a intestine punch'.

however he is aware of it took months of complicated, confidential diplomacy to arrange an appropriate swap for Frode Berg that ultimately worried Russian agents in jail in Lithuania. Norway wasn't keeping any convicted spies to trade and neither is the united states.

"i am making an attempt to center of attention on immediate goals, so I do not get distracted by using how lousy it's that he could spend 16 years behind bars," David Whelan instructed me, imagining how his twin would have felt, convicted of spying and heading again to his jail cellphone.

"I suppose Paul might be taking it very difficult. it is a very long time."

photo copyright Getty pictures graphic caption Paul Whelan