MOSCOW (WWJ/AP) - A Russian court has upheld an earlier ruling to keep a former U.S. Marine in a Moscow jail for three more months as he faces espionage charges.
Michigan resident Paul Whelan, who also holds British, Irish and Canadian citizenship, was arrested in a hotel room in the Russian capital at the end of December.
The Moscow City Court on Thursday upheld the ruling that ordered keeping Whelan in jail at least until the end of May.
Whelan's lawyer has said his client was handed a flash drive which had on it classified information he didn't know about. He confirmed on Thursday that Whelan is accused of spying for the United States.
"He was expecting to see on the flash drive some personal information like pictures or videos, something like that, about that person's previous trips around Russia," lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov previously told reporters. "We don't know how the materials that contain state secrets ended up there."
Zherebenkov said Whelan was detained before he could open the files. Zherebenkov also said it was not clear what has happened to the person who reportedly gave the flash drive to Whelan.
A spying conviction in Russia carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Whelan, 48, was discharged from the Marines for bad conduct. He works as the global security director for a U.S. automobile parts manufacturer and lives in Novi. His family has said he was in Moscow to attend a wedding.
The Marine Corps released Whelan's service record earlier this year. It showed he joined the Marine Reserves in 1994, rose to the rank of staff sergeant in 2004 and deployed to Iraq for several months in 2004 and 2006.
The record showed he was convicted of charges that included larceny at a court-martial in January 2008 and given a bad-conduct discharge at the end of that year. Court records provided by the Marine Corps indicated he was accused of attempting to steal more than $10,000 while serving as an administrative clerk in Iraq.
