U.S.-Canadian citizen Paul Whelan assaulted in Russia prison, his brother says

Paul Whelan was attacked on Tuesday at the Russian labour camp where he is being imprisoned, his brother has said in a statement.

Whelan was punched in the face and forced to defend himself at a sewing workshop in a penal colony in Russia's Mordovia region when he tried and failed to get another inmate to move.

"A new prisoner blocked part of the production line and Paul asked him to move out of the way. After repeated requests, the prisoner hit Paul in the face, breaking Paul's glasses in the process, and attempted to hit him a second time," Dave Whelan, his brother, said in a statement.

"Paul stood up to block the second hit and other prisoners intervened to prevent the prisoner continuing the attack on Paul."

Whelan informed his parents of the attack in a subsequent phone call.

"Paul says he believes the prison administration is taking the attack seriously," said David Whelan.

Arrested in 2018 in Russia, Paul Whelan was convicted of espionage in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in a facility in Mordovia, a Russian region southeast of Moscow.

'We ain't giving up': Biden

Whelan, born in Ottawa to British parents, resided in Michigan for more than two decades and served in the U.S. Marines. prior to his Russian arrest. He is a U.S. national who also holds British and Irish passports, and his detention has spanned both the Donald Trump and Joe Biden administrations.

Both Whelan and the U.S. government have denied that he is a spy.

WATCH l 'We've got to stop wrongful detention,'Elizabeth WhelantellsCBC News:

'Free Paul Whelan': Ex-U.S.marine's sister confronts Russian diplomat about her brother

1 year ago

Duration 7:31

Rosemary Barton Live speaks with Paul Whelan's sister Elizabeth Whelan, who at this week's UN Security Council meeting called on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin to free her brother.

Whelan at times has held up hand-drawn signs in the docket during Russian proceedings, with inscriptions such as "Sham trial!" and "Decision action from POTUS [President of the United States] and PMs needed!"

Dave Whelan said he thought his brother was a target because he was an American and anti-American sentiment was "not uncommon among the other prisoners."

Biden was asked last week by a reporter if he had any message for the families of Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained since earlier this year and faces a trial on espionage charges both he and his newspaper reject.

"We ain't giving up," said Biden.

Whelan's name came up in negotiations that led to last year's release from a Russian prison of WNBA star Brittney Griner, negotiator and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson told CBC News.

Richardson, who died two months ago, told CBCNews at that time that he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin did not want to give Biden a political victory and so ultimately rejected a swap of multiple prisoners. In the deal that saw Griner freed, notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was released from a federal sentence he was serving in the U.S.

U.S. House Democrat from Michigan on the Whelan report:

Whelan's sister, Elizabeth, has also lobbied for the end of his prison sentence, including directly to Moscow officials when Russia chaired a United Nations Security Council meeting in April.

She told CBC News a few days later that while her elderly parents have been in contact with their son through periodic 10-minute phone calls, the family hasn't seen a picture of Whelan since trial proceedings held in 2020.