MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th December, 2018) The period of Russian national Maria Butina's detention in a single cell in a US prison has been extended once again, Sergey Trepelkov, the minister-counselor of the Russian Embassy to the United States, told Sputnik on Tuesday, adding that Russian diplomats would visit the detainee on Wednesday.
�"The consular department of the Russian Embassy has learned of the extension of Maria Butina's detention in solitary confinement. It is planned that on Wednesday Maria Butina will once again be visited by the embassy's staff," Trepelkov said.
�US authorities arrested Butina in mid-July. The Russian national originally pleaded not guilty to charges of acting as a foreign agent and conspiracy to act as an agent of Russia in the United States. The Russian Foreign Ministry has said the charges against Butina were groundless and trumped-up and called her ongoing detention unacceptable.
Butina subsequently cooperated with the investigators, pleading guilty in front of a US Federal judge to one count of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent last Thursday. The next hearing in Butina case is set for February 13.
The Russian national is detained in a prison in Alexandria, Virginia.
