U.S Citizen setenced to 16 year in prison in secert Russian trial

U.S/Canadian citizen in Russia for a wedding in 2018 when he was arrested, the Marine veteran was sentenced to 16 years today, U.S government is calling out the trial as a phony sham trial.

the President is yet to comment on the news.

A Russian court on Monday sentenced an American security executive to 16 years in prison on spying charges, a verdict that drew an angry response from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who denounced the man’s treatment by Russian authorities as “appalling.”

The Moscow City Court read out the conviction of Paul Whelan on charges of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in a maximum security prison. The trial was held behind closed doors, because authorities said that was needed for the trial to consider sensitive data.

Whelan, who was born in Canada, has insisted on his innocence, saying he was set up. The 50-year-old corporate security executive and U.S. Marine Corps veteran from Novi, Mich., about 45 kilometres west of Detroit, was arrested in Moscow in December 2018 while he was in Russia to attend a friend’s wedding.

Oooooooops there it is; Whelan’s Russian lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, pointed at Russian official statements signaling a possibility that Whelan could be exchanged for Russians Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko.