Paul Whelan was in Moscow in December 2018, to help with the wedding of a former Marine. During his stay, on December 28, 2018, he was set up and arrested by the FSB. Paul was assigned a Russian-speaking lawyer by the FSB (Paul does not speak Russian), denied consular access, and held for a year and a half in the notorious Lefortovo prison before suffering a secretive sham trial in the summer of 2020. Paul Whelan often endured solitary confinement in the prison, and was subject to emergency hernia surgery in the prison shortly before the trial. In June of that year, although no credible evidence was presented, Paul was sentenced to 16 years in a harsh regime labor camp in the province of Mordovia where he has been held ever since.

Paul now lives in dilapidated, Dickensian conditions with dozens of hardened prisoners in barracks. His days are spent working in a garment factory, and he is given only subsistence-level food. Paul has also experienced solitary confinement at the gulag.

During his wrongful detention, the Ambassadors of the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland have spoken out about him and visited him in prison. Three Congressional resolutions have been passed on his behalf. The highest levels of the US government have repeatedly called for his release.

Russia's malevolence knows no bounds, and the longer Paul is forced to stay detained in a gulag, the more precarious his future will be. All effort must be made to secure his immediate release and remove him from real and present danger.