OREANDA-NEWS. US citizen Paul Whelan, convicted of espionage in Russia, may be exchanged in September. This was announced on July 20 by his lawyer Olga Karlova.

“There is some information about a possible exchange in September, but it is still unconfirmed,” she said. If there is no progress in negotiations on the prospects of the exchange, then within a week the American may be convoyed to the place of imprisonment. At the moment, Whelan’s defender noted, he is in the pre-trial detention center Lefortovo in Moscow.

Whelan, who has US, British, Canadian and Irish citizenship, was detained during a spy action at the end of December 2018. In mid-June 2020, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. In accordance with the court’s decision, material evidence, including the seized flash card and documents, will be kept in the file. In the last plea, the American asked to acquit him due to his innocence.

On July 9, 2020, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow and Washington were not negotiating the exchange of Whelan for Russian citizens.