Whelan's Family Says Does Not See Connection Between His, Yaroshenko's Cases

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2021) Family of US citizen Paul Whelan, imprisoned in Russia, said on Monday it does not see any possible connections between his and Russian national Konstantin Yaroshenko's cases.

Earlier on Monday, a US court denied the motion of Yaroshenko, who is serving a prison term in the US, for a compassionate release. His lawyer Alexey Tarasov told Sputnik that a swap deal of the two prisoners on a humanitarian basis would be a possible next step for Moscow and Washington.

"I don't really see any connection between Mr. Yaroshenko's case and Paul's," Whelan's brother David Whelan told Sputnik when asked about his attitude on a possible exchange. "I don't know of anyone in either the US or Russian government who has ever suggested such an exchange, so it's hard to estimate possibilities without more information."

David Whelan expressed regrets that Yaroshenko's motion was denied.

"While every family wants their family member released, I'm sure it's especially on hard on partners and children like his wife and daughter," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said after the summit with his US counterpart Joe Biden earlier this year that they raised the issue of prisoner exchange as an area in which compromises could be found between Russia and the United States.

Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia in 2010 on suspicion of drug trafficking and was later extradited to the United States. In 2011, a US court sentenced Yaroshenko to 20 years in prison for allegedly taking part in a conspiracy to smuggle a large amount of drugs into the United States. Yaroshenko pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

Paul Whelan was arrested in Russia in December 2018. A court in Moscow sentenced him to 16 years in prison on espionage charges last June.