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Prison staff break up fight between Paul Whelan, other inmate

It is reported that an investigation is underway to be followed by a procedural decision whether or not to file criminal charges

MOSCOW, November 29. /TASS/. Personnel at the correctional facility in Russia’s Mordovia Region, where US, UK, Irish and Canadian citizen Paul Whelan is serving time for espionage, broke up a confrontation between him and another inmate before it turned into a fistfight, the regional branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service said.

"On the premises of the production area of Correctional Facility No. 17, during an argument, a conflict arose involving P. Whelan and another inmate. The latter hit Whelan on the left side of the face. The facility staff quickly put a stop to things and took the parties to the conflict to the medical wing. During the checkup, the prison’s medical practitioner found a scratch under Whelan’s eye.

"This incident was recorded by video surveillance. Currently, an investigation is underway and its materials will be sent to Russia’s Interior Ministry department for the Zubovo-Polyansky Municipal District of the Republic of Mordovia in order to make a procedural decision (whether or not to file criminal charges - TASS)," the agency added.

Former US career intelligence officer Paul Whelan who was detained in Moscow on December 28, 2018, while receiving a USB drive containing information on operatives from one of the FSB divisions was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage.

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