'Paul Whelan Is My Brother, Russia Is Torturing Him in Prison'

Following Brittney Griner’s release, the twin of the American still being held by Moscow speaks out

- By David Whelan

THE SILENCE IS THE WORST. When my twin brother, Paul Whelan, doesn't call us from the Russian labor colony where he is held hostage, we worry. Well, we worry all the time. But particularly when he's silent.

Paul calls home almost every day. When he doesn't, it usually means the routine human rights abuses have become something else. We already know that Paul is woken every two hours every night..

Imagine not being able to sleep for more than two hours at a time for two years. We also know he's been put in solitary confinement for 30 days at a time. The United Nations describes that as torture.

Paul's calls to our parents are such a lifeline. I have not spoken to Paul since October 2018 when we were at our parents' house in Michigan. He was saying he'd be away to help a fellow Marine having a wedding in Moscow over Christmas. I was to keep an eye on our parents. We never imagined that he was the one who'd need an eye kept on him.

The calls stopped coming in September 2022 and again this past November. Paul tells our parents it is because the Wagner mercenaries [a private military company] are at the prison recruiting soldiers for Russia's war in Ukraine. The prison doesn't want Paul to report on the recruitment. They silence him by sending him to a prison hospital, where he's at risk of actually getting sick. Paul warned the prison that a lack of phone calls would worry our family, especially at Thanksgiving. We were glad when he finally resurfaced, healthy as you can be in a Russian prison. Back to the routine abuses and corruption of his day-to-day existence.