[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 272 Engrossed in House (EH)]
<DOC>
H. Res. 272
In the House of Representatives, U. S.,
June 14, 2023.
Whereas United States citizen Paul Whelan is a resident of Novi, Michigan, and a
veteran of the Marine Corps;
Whereas, on December 22, 2018, Paul Whelan traveled to Moscow, Russia, for the
wedding of a personal friend;
Whereas, on December 28, 2018, the Federal Security Service of the Russian
Federation arrested Paul Whelan at the Metropol Hotel in Moscow and
charged him with espionage;
Whereas the Federal Security Service has never provided any evidence of supposed
wrongdoing with respect to Paul Whelan;
Whereas Paul Whelan was imprisoned in Lefortovo Prison and was held in pretrial
detention at the prison for more than 19 months after his arrest;
Whereas a Moscow court extended Paul Whelan's pretrial detention multiple times
without publicly presenting justification or evidence of wrongdoing;
Whereas even Vladimir Zherebenkov, the lawyer appointed by the Federal Security
Service to represent Paul Whelan, said on May 24, 2019, ``[The Federal
Security Service] always roll[s] out what they have, but in this case,
we've seen nothing concrete against Whelan in five months. That means
there is nothing.'';
Whereas then-United States Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Jon Huntsman,
responded on April 12, 2019, to a question about the detention of Paul
Whelan, ``If the Russians have evidence, they should bring it forward.
We have seen nothing. If there was a case, I think the evidence would
have been brought forward by now.'';
Whereas then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov on May 14, 2019, and urged him to ensure United States
citizens are not unjustly held abroad;
Whereas the Kremlin has refused to provide Paul Whelan with full access to his
lawyer, and the so-called evidence against Paul Whelan and any evidence
he has seen is in Russian, a language Whelan does not read or speak;
Whereas the Lefortovo pretrial detention facility and the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs refused to provide medical treatment for Paul Whelan's medical
condition, despite being aware of its worsening state, resulting in
emergency surgery on May 29, 2020;
Whereas Paul Whelan was wrongfully convicted on June 15, 2020, and sentenced to
16 years in a Russian labor camp by a three-judge panel, in a trial
witnessed by United States Ambassador John Sullivan, who referred to the
trial as ``a mockery of justice'' due to the denial of a fair trial and
the exclusion of defense witnesses;
Whereas, in August 2020, on an unknown day, Paul Whelan was secretly transferred
to camp IK-17, a penal labor camp in Mordovia, Russia, where he is
forced to work 6 days a week in a garment factory;
Whereas Ambassador John Sullivan, while visiting Paul Whelan at the labor camp
in Mordovia, stated that ``Russian authorities * * * have never shown
the world evidence of his guilt'', and reiterated his call for the
Russian authorities to correct this injustice and release Paul Whelan;
Whereas Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov on February 4, 2021, and urged him to release United
States citizens detained in the Russian Federation, including Paul
Whelan and Trevor Reed, so that they are able to return home to their
families in the United States;
Whereas, in August 2021, Whelan was released from a month-long stay in a
solitary confinement at the IK-17 penal colony in the region of
Mordovia;
Whereas, on April 27, 2022, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a
bipartisan resolution calling for the release of Whelan;
Whereas Secretary Blinken ``pressed'' the Kremlin to accept an offer by the
United States that would bring Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner home in
July 2022;
Whereas, in November 2022, Paul Whelan was unable to contact his family for more
than a week, during which time Russian authorities claimed Whelan had
been sent to the hospital;
Whereas Russian authorities refused to release Paul Whelan as part of the
prisoner exchange in December 2022;
Whereas Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated, ``His detention remains
unacceptable, and we continue to press for his immediate release at
every opportunity''; and
Whereas President Biden stated that his administration had ``not forgotten about
Paul Whelan,'' and promised to ``keep negotiating in good faith for his
release'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) implores the Government of the Russian Federation to immediately
release Paul Whelan from imprisonment;
(2) implores the Government of the Russian Federation to comply with
international treaty obligations and provide unrestricted consular
access to Paul Whelan while he remains imprisoned in the Russian
Federation;
(3) calls on the Government of the Russian Federation to provide
Paul Whelan and all other political prisoners their constitutionally
afforded due process rights and universally recognized human rights;
(4) expresses the sincere thanks of the United States to the
Governments of Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom for their support
in attempting to release Paul Whelan; and
(5) expresses sympathy to the family of Paul Whelan for this
travesty to justice and personal hardship and expresses hope that their
ordeal can soon be brought to a just end.
Attest:
Clerk.