Human rights activists were prohibited from communicating with an American suspected of spying in English in a pre-trial detention center

Employees of the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center forbade members of the Moscow Public Monitoring Commission to communicate in English with the American Paul Whelan, who was detained on suspicion of espionage. Dozhd about this A member of the commission, Alexander Ionov, told .

“We were able to look at him and his camera visually, but we were not allowed to talk to him. Whelan does not understand Russian, and the administration of the pre-trial detention center forbade dialogue in English,” Ionov said.

According to him, on Monday, January 14, human rights activists intend to file a complaint with the leadership of the Federal Penitentiary Service and the prosecutor's office after such a ban, as well as require an interpreter or be allowed to speak English.

“Nowhere in the law does it say that the employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service must understand what is at stake. But only be present, see and hear,” said a member of the monitoring committee.

He also revealed that Whelan was being held in a standard double cell. In this cell, the American had food and water.

Recall that the Investigation Department of the FSB announced the arrest of Paul Whelan on December 31. A criminal case was initiated against him under the article on espionage (Article 276 of the Criminal Code). The man faces 10 to 20 years in prison.

Officially, the FSB did not speak out about the nature of the charges, but claimed that he was detained "during a spy operation." At the same time, the Rosbalt agency, citing sources in the special services , claimed that Whelan was arrested in a room at the Metropol Hotel after he was given a flash card with a list of employees of a “secret department” by a person whom he recruited via the Internet.

Whelan's relatives deny allegations of espionage against him and claim that he came to Moscow for the wedding of his friend, also a former marine.

Whelan is under arrest in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center, where he has so far been visited only by US consuls, with whom he spoke in English.