The lawyer of the former American marine imprisoned in Russia, Paul Whelan, has stated that she does not know the whereabouts of her client. Whelan is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence on espionage charges, which he and Washington have denied.
Lawyer Olga Karlova was quoted on Wednesday by Russian state media as saying that the prison administration in Mordovia, Russia, where Whelan is serving his sentence, has ignored her requests to confirm whether her client is in the cell of this prison.
Karlova added that she lost contact with her client a few days ago and asked the human rights group, the Public Monitoring Commission, to help her find his whereabouts. Whelan’s disappearance comes at a time when several dissidents imprisoned in Russia have been suddenly transferred to other prisons in recent days and are unreachable.
The day before, family members, advocates, and legal representatives of four additional incarcerated activists – the former leaders of the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s teams in Bashkortostan and Novosibirsk, Lili Chanysheva and Ksenia Fadeyeva, respected human rights defender Oleg Orlov, and anti-war artist Sasha Skochilenko – disclosed that they had been abruptly relocated from their initial prisons or detention facilities to undisclosed correctional facilities, rendering them unreachable.
The staging process involves the use of segregated and sealed-off train compartments specifically designed for transporting prisoners, where ventilation is minimal, hygiene facilities such as showers are nonexistent, and access to adequate food is severely restricted. This lack of basic necessities during the transfer process raises concerns about the well-being and treatment of the individuals being moved, highlighting the need for greater transparency and accountability in Russia’s prison system.
Only Skolichenko’s supporters were given notice that she had been moved to an undisclosed penitentiary in Moscow, while the whereabouts of the other three individuals remain shrouded in mystery. This lack of transparency in the Russian penal system has drawn sharp criticism from various human rights organizations, as prisoners can be transferred secretly between facilities, a practice commonly referred to as “staging.”
The transfer process can take several days, weeks, and even months, as the trains stop and the prisoners spend time in transit prisons. Prisoners are almost always humiliated, beaten, and sometimes even killed by the hands of their guards.
Whelan, a 54-year-old man, was arrested in Moscow in December 2018 on charges of espionage and was sentenced to 16 years in prison in May 2020, after a trial that the United States condemned as a “mockery of justice.”He is one of 10 American citizens who are being controversially held in Russian prisons, accused or convicted of charges such as drug possession, theft, treason, and espionage. In many cases, the charges against these Americans, including against Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, and Radio Free Europe journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, are seen as fabricated or political.
