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Jailed US national Whelan complains of lack of translation of case materials, says brother

The Canadian Embassy visited Paul last week

© Dmitry Serebryakov/TASS

NEW YORK, November 18. /TASS/. US national Paul Whelan, charged with espionage in Russia, has complained that the documentary evidence in his case remains untranslated during a meeting with employees of the Canadian embassy, his brother David Whelan said in a message to the media on Monday.

"The Canadian Embassy visited Paul on Thursday, November 14. It was their first visit to see him since August and his first consular visit since October 17," the message in possession of TASS informs. "The consular staff noted that he appears to continue to lose weight and confirmed that there still had been no independent medical assessment of Paul's health. Paul has been imprisoned by the Russian government for more than 320 days."

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All witnesses except for one say that Whelan not involved in espionage — lawyer

"Paul's lawyers also met with him this week. His English-speaking lawyer had been out of the country for nearly two weeks, so any translation with Paul would have been done through the FSB's interpreter," the letter says. "Paul noted to the Canadian staff that the documentary evidence was not being provided in English."

US citizen Paul Whelan, who also holds British, Canadian and Irish passports, is a global security chief at BorgWarner, a Michigan-based automotive components company. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) informed that Whelan had been detained on December 28, 2018 in Moscow while on an alleged spy mission. A criminal investigation was opened against him on espionage charges carrying a punishment of up to 20 years behind bars.

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