Paul Whelan heads home, after 2,043 days in a Russian prison

Paul Whelan will need to have doubted this second was ever going to come back.

It has been 2,043 days since Federal Safety Service (FSB) brokers in balaclavas burst into his Moscow lodge room, pinned him to the bottom and introduced he was being arrested for espionage.

I adopted Mr Whelan’s case carefully in Moscow from the very begin and bear in mind the day he first arrived in courtroom wanting extra like a dazed librarian than a dastardly intelligence agent.

His fingers have been cuffed and he was cradling a cardboard field containing his jail lunch.

He was too nervous to say a lot, at first, and I discovered later he was being interrogated and threatened.

As time handed Mr Whelan discovered his voice and commenced to denounce his jailing, loudly.

Russia thinks it has caught James Bond, is how he put it one day, but in fact it got Mr Bean on holiday.

After he was sentenced to 16 years, we spoke at size by telephone from jail – Mr Whelan all the time insisted on his innocence.

Born in Canada to British mother and father with Irish roots, he’s a citizen of 4 nations – which made his arrest a giant deal diplomatically.

Lengthy earlier than any trial, Russia’s overseas minister claimed Mr Whelan had been caught “red handed” committing espionage.

The courtroom later heard he had been attempting to get secret info from a good friend – really an FSB intelligence agent.

However no proof was ever made public.

Mr Whelan, a former US Marine, was a fan of Russia and had visited a number of instances.

When he was arrested, he was in Moscow for the marriage of an American good friend to a Russian girl and had spent the morning main the friends across the Kremlin, together with the locals.

After his detention, I scoured his social media accounts for any contacts or clues.

Some individuals have been too nervous to speak, given the intense cost.

However, all those that agreed to talk laughed at the concept that their good friend may very well be concerned in espionage.

“If he’s a spy,” considered one of them wrote to me, with a number of exclamation marks, “then I’m Michael Jackson”.

For a very long time, Mr Whelan was relentlessly upbeat about his destiny.

He was satisfied the US authorities would get him out, whilst relations between Russia and the West slid from terrible to a lot worse.

Situations in his jail camp, IK 17, have been powerful, locked up with “little one rapists and murderers” as he as soon as put it.

He studied Russian – even Tajik – wrote letters, learn spy novels.

The remainder of his time was spent stitching garments in a jail workshop and the nights have been interrupted, often, by the guards.

They might shine a torch in his face to test he had not escaped.

Regardless of all that, Mr Whelan instructed me he made a behavior of singing his 4 nationwide anthems out loud every morning – to bother these guards and to maintain his spirits up.

He referred to as himself a political hostage and instructed me repeatedly the FSB brokers who took him – even the decide who convicted him – had all assured him he could be swapped.

It’s why he didn’t hassle interesting his sentence.

However as time handed, so did two different prisoner exchanges between Russia and the US, and each instances Mr Whelan missed out.

So once we spoke late final yr, he admitted he felt deserted by his authorities.

Formally designated “wrongfully detained”, he had been assured he was a precedence, Mr Whelan instructed me.

Then he had been “left within the mud”.

That day on the telephone he was despondent and annoyed like I had by no means heard earlier than.

Conscious talks to free Evan Gershkovich – the US journalist accused of espionage – have been beneath means, he anxious he had been left behind once more.

Mr Whelan’s mother and father have been ageing, his beloved canine Flora had died, he jogged my memory.

He felt his life was ebbing away.

Earlier this week, as rumours of a prisoner swap started flying, I referred to as Mr Whelan’s previous lawyer, Olga Karlova.

She had seen the reviews and instructed me she had written to IK 17 asking whether or not Mr Whelan was there.

There was no reply.

It was a key signal an change was taking place, doubtless a significant one, though nothing was confirmed till it was all safely beneath means and couldn’t be derailed.

Two days on, I’ve been watching photos of Mr Whelan boarding a airplane – no handcuffs, no jail uniform.

He seems just a little dazed, presumably exhausted.

However 5 years after he landed in Moscow for a marriage get together, he’s ultimately heading residence.