Alleged US spy Paul Whelan was unwittingly carrying Russian state secrets on flash drive, his lawyer says

Paul Whelan’s Russian lawyer says his client was given a flash drive he expected to contain travel information, but instead it contained state secrets

The lawyer says Whelan did not know about the files and never opened them, and the identity of the person who provided the flash drive was not revealed

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Accused spy Paul Whelan (right) and his lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov (left, back) and an unidentified woman confer during a hearing of an appeal on his arrest at the Moscow City Court on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

Published: 2:51am, 23 Jan 2019Updated: 4:38am, 23 Jan 2019

The lawyer for an American man being held in Moscow on suspicion of spying said on Tuesday that his client was given a flash drive containing Russian “state secrets” before he was arrested, but did not know he had them and had not looked at them.

Paul Whelan, a former US Marine, was detained in Moscow at the end of December. The arrest raised speculation that he could be swapped for one of the Russians held in the US, such as gun rights activist Maria Butina, who has pleaded guilty to acting as a foreign agent in the US.

Accused spy Paul Whelan is seen inside a defendant's glass cage during a hearing of an appeal against his arrest at the Moscow City Court in on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

Whelan made his first public appearance in court on Tuesday to hear the appeal of his arrest. The judge upheld the previous ruling that ordered him to be kept behind bars at least until the end of February.

Whelan was kept in a glass cage and did not speak to reporters.

Paul Whelan, former US Marine accused of spying by Russia, is a citizen of four countries

Spying charges carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years in Russia.