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US Senate urges to release US citizens Whelan and Reed, convicted in Russia

The resolutions will be submitted to the full Senate for consideration

WASHINGTON, June 23. /TASS/. The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations adopted resolutions on Tuesday calling upon Russia to release US citizens Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed, convicted and jailed in Russia.

"Proud to announce SFRC just approved two resolutions calling for the release of Trevor Reed and Paul Whelan. <…> As US President [Joe Biden] said last week, the U.S. government will not stop fighting for their freedom," the committee said in a Twitter post.

The resolutions will be submitted to the full Senate for consideration.

Resolutions of the US House of Representatives and Senate, adopted separately by each chamber of the US parliament, are of advisory nature and not legally binding. They serve to express the lawmakers’ stance on this or that issue, and the executive branch has the right to ignore them.

Paul Whelan, who holds US, British, Canadian and Irish passports, was detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in Moscow on December 28, 2018, while on a spy mission. A criminal case was opened against him under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code (espionage). The Moscow City Court eventually sentenced Whelan to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.

American student Trevor Reed was sentenced last year to 9 years in penal colony for violent assault of a police officer in Moscow. According to investigators, in August 2019 Reed attacked police officers who arrived after a phone call of Moscow residents. They complained about an intoxicated man who started an argument with several women. When the foreigner was taken to the police station, in the vehicle, he attacked the driver and his partner.

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