FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was detained and accused of espionage, stands inside a defendants' cage during his verdict hearing in Moscow, Russia June 15, 2020.  REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
Russia

US ambassador to visit jailed American in Russia

The U.S. ambassador to Russia will visit Paul Whelan, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran jailed for spying, in prison, the embassy said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to Russia will visit Paul Whelan, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran jailed for spying, in prison, the embassy said on Wednesday.

Arrested in 2018 in Russia, Whelan was convicted of spying charges in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony in Mordovia, a Russian region notorious since Soviet times for its penal colonies.

Both he and the U.S. government have denied the accusations that he is a spy.

(Writing by Felix Light; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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