Last Updated 9 months by Amnon J. Jobi | Amnon Front Page
A massive prisoner swap is taking place between Russia and the United States, according to a White House source. The report comes as the whereabouts of several high-profile prisoners, including American prisoner Paul Whelan, are now currently unknown.
Reports have indicated they have been unexpectedly moved from prisons in recent days. In a similar fashion, Russians imprisoned in the United States have also reportedly disappeared from the Federal Bureau of Prisons database, generating expectations of a swap. Bloomberg News also reported that Russia is releasing Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, in a major multi-country prisoner swap.
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Scripps News has been told by sources that a prisoner swap has not been finalized. Swapping prisoners could involve delicate movement of various flights with all parties waiting for planes to land before finalizing such swaps.
Whelan was arrested in 2018 in Moscow and two years later, was convicted and sentenced to 16 years behind bars on espionage charges. The U.S. declared him wrongfully detained. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained in Russia in March of last year. The journalist has been jailed in Russia since March 2023 on accusations of spying. It’s a claim Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal and the U.S. government have repeatedly denied. The U.S. State Department considers Gershkovich to be “wrongfully detained.”
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