Russia: Justice Keeps Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkowitz in Custody

On March 29, the Wall Street Journal published a blank front page to pay tribute to its journalist. A Russian court on Tuesday rejected Evan Gershkovich’s appeal challenging the extension of his pre-trial detention until June 30 on “espionage” charges. The reporter, arrested in March 2023, denies the charges.

“The first appellate instance decided to leave unchanged the decision of March 26 (of the court of first instance) to extend the preventive measure (detention),” said Judge Alexander Pushkin, according to an AFP journalist who was present at the hearing. The 32-year-old American appeared in the glass cage reserved for the accused, generally smiling. He gave a thumbs up to a reporter who asked how he was doing. As at previous hearings, he made no statements to the press. U.S. Charge d’Affaires Stephanie Holmes attended Tuesday’s meeting but also did not make any statements.

The procedure is classified

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who also formerly worked for AFP in Moscow, was arrested by Russian security services (FSB) while reporting in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, more than a year ago, in March 2023. He is accused of espionage, a crime punishable by 20 years in prison and a crime unprecedented against a foreign journalist since the collapse of the USSR. He denies the accusations, as do the United States, his newspaper, his loved ones and his family. Russia never substantiated its accusations or publicly provided evidence, and the entire procedure was kept secret.

In recent years, several American citizens have been arrested and sentenced to long prison terms in Russia. Washington, which for two years supported Kyiv in the fight against the Russian army, accuses Moscow of wanting to exchange them for Russians detained in the United States.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready to exchange the journalist for Vadim Krasikov, sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany for the murder of a Chechen opponent in Berlin in 2019. Since then, however, efforts to free him may have taken a more difficult turn. death in prison of Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, who, according to his entourage, also participated in the prisoner exchange project, which is currently being negotiated.