NEW YORK, December 2. /TASS/. US citizen Paul Whelan, who was convicted in Russia on espionage charges, has got in touch with his relatives after more than three weeks of silence, his brother David told TASS on Friday.

"Paul called our parents today at around 5:30am Eastern (13:30 Moscow time)," he said. "Paul said he'd been given a "special dispensation" to phone home, so we know it wasn't a technical issue about the phone calls; he had been prohibited for some reason. Paul is at LPU-21, the hospital prison. He did not say why he was there, but did say he would call again later, and our parents think he is returning to IK-17 today. So the call at least acts as a "proof of life", even if nothing else has been explained: when Paul went there, why, why the calls stopped, why the US Embassy had to seek information about his whereabouts and the Russian authorities refused to respond."

David Whelan said earlier than his brother had skipped November 24 and December 1, when he was supposed to call home. The US embassy said it had not heard anything about the man since November 16.

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. On June 15, 2020, the Moscow City Court found Whelan guilty of spying against Russia and sentenced him to 16 years in a high security colony. Whelan is serving his sentence in Correctional Colony No. 17 in Mordovia.