Moscow Court
On Tuesday, a Moscow court ruled that U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich would remain in pre-trial detention until at least March 30, rejecting the latest appeal from his legal team.
Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was arrested during a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg in March 2023 and charged with espionage, allegations vehemently denied by him, his employer, and the White House.
The Moscow courts service released a statement following the hearing, stating, “Gershkovich will remain in custody until March 30, 2024.” The appeal was a procedural hearing against a prior decision to extend Gershkovich’s pre-trial detention, focusing on the duration rather than the substance of the case.
The arrest and ongoing detention of Gershkovich have drawn criticism from the U.S., with Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy denouncing the charges as baseless and asserting that he was imprisoned for reporting news.
The decision means that Gershkovich will spend at least a year in jail from his arrest date on March 29, 2023. This incident marked the first time Russia had detained a Western journalist on espionage charges since the fall of the Soviet Union.
President Vladimir Putin recently expressed a desire to see Gershkovich released as part of a potential prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States, indicating ongoing talks between the two countries.
During these remarks, Putin suggested that he wished to exchange Gershkovich for a Russian individual jailed in Germany for the killing of a Chechen dissident.
The U.S., designating Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained,” has accused Moscow of arresting American citizens on unfounded charges to use them as leverage in securing the release of Russians convicted abroad.
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