MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. US national Paul Whelan, who was convicted in Russia for spying, has refused to give written explanations following previously published reports about his alleged beating in penal colony No. 17 (IK-17) where is serving his sentence, the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service’s branch for Mordovia said in a reply to Whelan’s lawyer Olga Karlova, which was made available to TASS.
Earlier, Karlova said that she had received a letter from Paul Whelan’s brother, David, in which he wrote that on September 10 Paul was allegedly punched by an IK-17 officer. According to the letter, there is a video of the incident and one of the penal colony’s employees can confirm that. Mordovia’s penitentiary service dismissed those allegations to TASS. Nevertheless, Karlova filed a request with the service, asking to look into reasons for David Whelan’s statement about violence against his brother.
"The convicted Whelan’s medical records do not contain anything about his injuries during his stay at IK-17. Convict Whelan refused without explanation to make a written statement on the information in Ms. Karlova’s request. The information in the request was not confirmed," the press release says, noting that Whelan had not reported threats to his life and health, nor physical or moral pressure from the colony’s staff or other convicts to the administration.
"Neither physical force nor special equipment was used against Whelan during his stay in IK-17," it emphasizes, noting that a medical examination had not found any bodily injuries.
On December 28, 2018, Whelan, who holds US, UK, Canadian and Irish citizenship, was detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in a room of the Metropol Hotel in Moscow while on an alleged spy mission.
The FSB opened a criminal case against him on charges of espionage under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code. The Moscow City Court found Whelan guilty of spying against Russia and sentenced him to 16 years in a high-security colony.