A Lawyer for Paul Whelan, a U.S. citizen and ex-U.S. marine who was arrested in a Moscow hotel room last month on espionage charge, has said Mr. Whelan may have been in possession of classified material but may not have realized it.
Whelan’s lawyer says that Whelan may have been misled into accepting a thumb drive that held classified information but claims that Whelan didn’t see what was on the thumb drive because he’d been arrested before he even had a chance to look at it. He however, declined to clarify if Whelan knew the person who handed him the thumb drive.
Russian news site Rosbalt reported that the flash drive contained a list of employees in a secret Russian state agency.
On Tuesday, he appeared in public for the first time since his arrest for a court hearing, where a judge rejected a request for him to be let out on bail.
Whelan denies he’s a spy and says he was in Moscow for a wedding.
If found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison.