MOSCOW —
Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine held in Russia on spying charges, was convicted of espionage by a court in Moscow on Monday and sentenced to 16 years in a maximum prison colony.

Whelan, a Michigan native, was arrested in late December 2018 by Russia’s domestic intelligence service, the FSB, while visiting Moscow for a friends wedding. He was charged with espionage and has spent almost a year and a half in Moscow’s Lefortovo jail awaiting trial.

Whelan and his family have always denied he is a spy and have accused Russia of fabricating the case against him in order to take him as a bargaining chip in its relations with the United States.

In court on Monday, Whelan denounced the trail as a “sham” and part of a pre-planned operation by the Russian security services.

“We have proven my innocence,” Whelan told reporters while standing in a glass cage in the court room, flanked by men in masks. “We have proven fabrication. This is slimy, greasy corrupt Russian politics, nothing more, nothing less.”

The U.S. ambassador to Moscow, John Sullivan, also denounced the trial saying no evidence had been produced against Whelan and saying it violated human rights and international law.

“This secret trial in which no evidence was produced is an egregious violation of human rights and international legal norms,” Sullivan told journalists outside the courthouse afterwards.

Whelan’s trial is classed secret and has been held almost entirely behind closed doors. Russia’s authorities have never publicly provided details of the charges against him.

Whelan’s defense have said he was targeted by the FSB in a sting operation, involving a long-time Russian friend of Whelan.

According to his lawyers, the Russian friend, who was an FSB officer, planted classified materials on Whelan while visiting his hotel room in December 2018. Whelan had thought the friend was bringing him a memory card containing photographs of a trip to a monastery town they had taken together in spring earlier that year. Instead, unknown to Whelan, the card held the classified materials, according to his defense.

A few minutes later, FSB officers burst in and detained Whelan.

Whelan’s lawyers have not named the friend because of secrecy rules, saying only that he is a member of Russia’s security services. But Whelan’s family have identified him as Ilya Yatsenko. The Russian newspaper, Kommersant has reported that Yatsenko is a major in the FSB’s Department ‘K’, the powerful division handling economic crimes.

Since the moment of his arrest, there has been speculation that Russia would seek to trade Whelan in a possible exchange for Russians imprisoned in the United States.

After the hearing, Whelan’s Russian lawyers said that the FSB had made clear to them that Russia now intended to seek to swap Whelan.

“I understand that that question is already decided higher up,” Vladimir Zherebenkov, Whelan’s lawyer told reporters.

Zherebenkov said that the FSB had suggested to him that it did not make sense to appeal Whelan’s verdict since it would slow down any attempt to trade him.

“There is a suggestion and thought from some agents of the security services, ‘Guys, why do that, when the question of exchange will be solved quicker?’” Zherebenkov said.

Zherebenkov said he believed Russia wants to trade Whelan for two Russians currently serving long jail sentences in the U.S., Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot convicted of drug smuggling, and Viktor Bout, a notorious arms dealer suspected of links to Russian intelligence.

Russian officials have previously noted Whelan can be traded if pardoned by president Vladimir Putin, which can only occur after a conviction. Zherebenkov said they had intended to appeal Monday’s verdict but that they would first discuss it with Whelan.

Asked about a possible exchange Ambassador Sullivan said he couldn’t comment on a possible exchange.

“I’m not authorized to discuss exchanges. Now, when Paul has been convicted, I’m seeking justice for Paul. We are seeking not an exchange, but justice for him” Sullivan told reporters at the court.

Whelan’s family immediately after the verdict released a statement denouncing it and appealing to the U.S. government to take “immediate steps” to bring him home.

“The court’s decision merely completes the final piece of this broken judicial process. We had hoped that the court might show some independence but, in the end, Russian judges are political, not legal, entities,” the statement released by Whelan’s brother David said. “We look to the U.S. government to immediately take steps to bring Paul home.”

The family wrote they would look to President Donald Trump to help release Whelan and said they were relying on David Urban, a Washington DC-based lobbyist and advisor to Trump’s election campaign, to speak to the White House.

“We will look to President Trump, who alone can act to bring Paul home. We hope he will do so swiftly,” the family wrote.

Former U.S. intelligence officials have also said Whelan’s case has the hallmarks of a KGB-style frame up, similar to those seen in the Cold War. They have said Whelan’s background would have made him an unlikely choice for an American intelligence operative.

In addition to U.S., Whelan also holds British, Irish and Canadian citizenship. He left the Marines after he was convicted in a court martial trial on larceny charges in 2008 and received a bad conduct discharge. Whelan was a global security director for the autoparts supplier BorgWarner when he was arrested in Moscow.

A self-described Russophile, Whelan has travelled many times to Russia as a tourist, travelling in the country with friends, according to his family.

In court on Monday, Whelan held up a sign with the words “Sham Trial!” and “Meatball surgery” written on it, a reference he said to an emergency hernia operation he was given in June after being denied treatment for months.

He told journalists his detention was part of a pre-planned operation and that the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov had been aware of it before his trip to Moscow when he was arrested.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Whelan said. “They say I’m a Brigadier General. I’m not.”

Tanya Stukalova provided reporting from Moscow.