Page 27 - Consular Access News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Back to saudi arabia to set up a hospital. the state department confirming he is detain ed there and says it's raised the case with the saudi government. so, what do we know about this? >> well, his family believed that while he's in jail, he's psychologically deteriorating. he has little contact with them. occasional phone contact, but we learned on sunday through jake tapper's interview with john bolton, that u.s. fishes have been able to meet with him. >> what do you know about this? what is the u.s. trying to do to secure his release? >> well as of this moment, my understanding is that we ...

He had four passports. it complicates the issue of consular responsibility when it comes to which country needs to sbreerd intercede on his behalf. they have all applied for consular access. so far the u.s. is taking the lead because whelan entered on his u.s. passport. john huntsman has visited him in prison. the other issue raised is the possibility that this is part of a larger scheme, perhaps a prisoner swap to exchange him for a russian who's being detantd in the u.s. you mentioned maria batina who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the u.s., but there's also reports that a russian man was a...

Know is paul whelan in custody, and they say he was caught spying. beyond that, there's been absolutely no details given about what he was accused of doing specifically. just that he was arrested december 28th in the russian capital, moscow. in terms of consular access, the russians have 72 hours under the vienna convention to give consular access to u.s. diplomats so they can meet with mr. whelan and talk to him about the beltway in which he's being -- the way in which he's being kept, the treatment. we're not clear that access has been granted. the u.s. embassy have been in contact saying th...

You. in short, what they're saying is very little beyond the initial statement that they put out when paul whelan was initially detained back on the 28th of december. that's when they said they arrested him. the fsb, russia's main counter espionage agency, saying that a u.s. citizen has been taken into custody who was caught spying in the russian capital. that's as far as their statement goes. in terms of consular access, we know the u.s. has requested that kind of access, and indicated that the russians have 72 hours before they have to grant the access to u.s. diplomats who can interview mr....

Says the u.s. is prepared to demand his immediate return. we made clear our expectation that we will learn more about the charges, come to understand what it is he is accused of and if the detention is not appropriate we will demand his immediate return. >> his family says he was in russia for a wedding and claims his innocence is undoubted. mark savage is following the story from michigan. what else are we hearing about the case? >> reporter: this is officially known as consular access. it's something that is guaranteed as far as agreements between the united states and russia when it comes t...