MOSCOW. Jan 18 (Interfax) - The United States embassy to Russia is attaching a lot of significance to the conditions in which the accused spy Paul Whelan is held and how his rights are observed, defense lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov told Interfax.
"Today I had a meeting with American Citizen Services Officer Richard Hanrahan, who is in charge of the observance of the rights of compatriots in Russia at the embassy. He said the embassy will continue to pay close attention to the development of the situation surrounding Whelan and the observance of his rights and interests," Zherebenkov said on Friday.
The postponement of a meeting between U.S. consular officers and Whelan on Thursday was owing to the fact that Russian law allows two meetings a month for individuals held at pretrial detention facilities, he said.
"The U.S. ambassador had the first meeting with Whelan on January 2, and then Irish diplomats had another one. But Whelan is a citizen of four countries, and the fact that each of them wishes to provide him consular assistance can only deserve respect. We have informed the investigator and our Foreign Ministry about this, and all of them have promised to look into the matter," he said.