NIZHNY NOVGOROD. Nov 8 (Interfax) - U.S. citizen Paul Whelan was convicted in Russia for trying to receive information about students of a Border Service institute of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), prosecutor Sergei Lukoyanov from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said.
"Let me explain why Whelan was convicted. It was established that he, an officer of the intelligence service of the U.S. Department of Defense, was trying to receive information about students of a higher educational establishment of Russia's FSB and was detained by state security officers," Lukoyanov said at a court hearing in Nizhny Novgorod.
Meanwhile, Whelan's lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov told Interfax that these were students of a higher educational establishment of the Border Service.