Manchester’s quaint downtown was abuzz Thursday with the news that Paul Whelan is coming home .
The former Marine, whose parents live in a farmhouse less than a mile from Main Street, was detained more than five years in Russia on charges of espionage that he and the U.S. government have said were fabricated.
“He’s finally free,” one man said as he paid the bill for his lunch at the Manchester Diner.
A woman holding a menu at a nearby table broke into a broad grin upon hearing the news that Whelan, the 54-year-old former global security chief for auto supplier BorgWarner, was released Thursday in a historic prisoner swap that included two other U.S. citizens, an American green card holder, five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were held as political prisoners in their own country.
Leslie Kirkland, 57, who owns the diner, said this small Washtenaw County village about 25 miles southwest of Ann Arbor was filled with “pure joy” Thursday. Whelan’s parents, Rosemary and Edward Whelan, are regular customers. They’ve been distraught, she said, since their son’s arrest in Moscow in December 2018.