Russian Prison Monitor Says Ex-US Marine Whelan Suffering From Elbow Pain

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th September, 2021) Paul Whelan, a former US marine sentenced by Russia to sixteen years in prison on espionage charges, has been complaining of elbow pain, a Russian prison monitor told Sputnik on Monday.

The 51-year-old, who holds American, British, Canadian and Irish passports, was transferred to a penal colony in Russia's Mordovia region in August last year.

"The monitoring commission visited Whelan a week ago," Valery Krutov, the chairman of the rights watchdog's Mordovia unit, said, adding that the convict had been to a hospital.

"There was something wrong with his elbow... He was prescribed medicines, which he complained of because he was not told what they were for," Krutov continued.

Whelan's defense team has asked a Mordovia court to allow his extradition to the United States, arguing that the language barrier prevented him from communicating with doctors. The American denies the spying charges.