• Arrest of Evan Gershkovich, the journalist who simply wanted to listen to the Russians
  • Unanimous Petition for Release of U.S. Journalist Detained in Russia: "Putin Must Stop Taking Press Hostage"

A Moscow court has rejected an appeal over the detention of jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in March. The Court upheld the pre-trial detention, ruling out transfer to another prison for the time being and refusing to allow house arrest or grant bail.

Gershkovich will remain in pre-trial detention until 29 May, although the Russian authorities may prolong it.

Nearly three weeks after the journalist was arrested for espionage, an accusation his media outlet and the U.S. government vehemently deny, the detainee was shown for the first time in public.

Gershkovich appeared in court standing inside a glass urn, according to courtroom footage shown on Russian state television. He wore jeans and a blue plaid shirt. People around him were forbidden to speak to him, but he was allowed to take photographs.

At times Gershkovich walked inside the box in which he appeared in court. To his left, but on the other side of the glass, was Ambassador Lynne Tracy.

The Kremlin says Gershkovich was "caught red-handed," but no one in Russia has released any evidence to back it up. Virtually all espionage trials in Russia end in a guilty verdict, and conviction carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

"HE IS HEALTHY AND STRONG"

Gershkovich was accredited to work as a journalist in Russia by the Russian Foreign Ministry at the time of his arrest while reporting in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg. Hired by the Wall Street Journal shortly before the invasion of Ukraine last year, Gershkovich had been reporting on Russia for more than five years at the time of his arrest. The 31-year-old journalist is fluent in Russian. He is the son of émigrés who left the Soviet Union for the United States during the Cold War.


On Monday, the U.S. ambassador to Russia visited Gershkovich in Lefortovo, the first access to him granted to U.S. officials since his arrest on March 29. "He is in good health and remains strong," said Lynne Tracy: "We reiterate our call for his immediate release."

"I want to say that I am not losing hope," Gershkovich wrote in a letter to his family a few days ago.

Moscow could use the journalist to exchange him for relevant prisoners it has in the US, but the process will take time. Investigators are still working out the details of the case, which could drag on for months or years if a similar case is modeled after that of fellow American Paul Whelan, a former Marine who was arrested in December 2018. Whelan who was held for 18 months in Lefortovo, like Gershkovich, and who was later sentenced to 16 years in June 2020 on espionage charges.

After the judicial decision was known, the Russian government gave another blow on the table. The ambassadors in Moscow of the United States, Great Britain and Canada were summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in relation to serious interference in Russia's affairs and for activities that "do not correspond" to diplomatic status. The three have defended Gershkovich and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opponent who on Monday was sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason.

  • Russia
  • United States
  • Justice

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