THE US ex-Marine Paul Whelan accepted assault by another inmate in Russian prison in which he is serving his sentence on the charge of espionage which he denieshis brother said in his statements.

Whelan was punched in the face and forced to defend himself in a sewing workshop at a penal colony in Russia’s Mordovia region when he tried and failed to get another inmate to move.

“A new inmate was blocking part of the production line and Paul asked him to get out of the way. After repeated pleas the prisoner punched Paul in the face, breaking Paul’s glasses during the incident and attempted to hit him a second time,” Paul’s brother David Whelan said in a statement.

“Paul stood up to block the second blow and other inmates intervened to prevent the inmate from continuing to attack Paul.”

David Whelan said he believes his brother was targeted because he is an American and anti-American sentiment is “not unusual among other inmates.”

“Paul says he believes the prison authorities are taking the attack seriously,” he said.

Paul Whelan was arrested in 2018 in Russia, convicted of espionage in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison, a sentence he is serving in a prison in Mordovia, a Russian region southeast of Moscow.

Both Whelan himself and the US government deny that he is a spy.