Jailed US citizen Paul Whelan seen in rare video at Russian penal colony

FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was detained and accused of espionage, stands inside a defendants' cage during his verdict hearing in Moscow, Russia June 15, 2020. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. citizen Paul Whelan, a former marine jailed in Russia over espionage charges that the United States says are bogus, was seen in a rare video broadcast on Monday by a Kremlin-backed news channel.

Arrested in 2018 in Russia, Whelan was convicted of spying charges in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony in Mordovia, a Russian region notorious since Soviet times for its penal colonies. He has denied the accusations.