Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned in Russia for more than a year, will be tried on espionage charges after Russian prosecutors announced Thursday that the indictment against him has been finalized.
Gershkovich, 32, will be transferred from Moscow to stand trial in Yekaterinburg, the city in which he was arrested. He was detained by Russian authorities while on a reporting trip there in May 2023. If convicted, he could receive up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors have accused Gershkovich of gathering information about a defense contractor for the CIA, an allegation that he, the Journal and the U.S. government have vehemently denied. The U.S. State Department has declared Gershkovich wrongfully detained.
Prosecutors have accused Gershkovich of gathering information about a defense contractor for the CIA, an allegation that he, the Journal and the U.S. government have vehemently denied.
In a statement Thursday, the Journal’s publisher, Almar Latour, and its editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, called the accusations “false and baseless” and an “assault” on the free press, and they urged President Joe Biden to “redouble efforts” to secure Gershkovich’s release.
“Russia’s latest move toward a sham trial is, while expected, deeply disappointing and still no less outrageous,” they said. “Evan has spent 441 days wrongfully detained in a Russian prison for simply doing his job. Evan is a journalist. The Russian regime’s smearing of Evan is repugnant, disgusting and based on calculated and transparent lies. Journalism is not a crime.”
The finalization of the indictment against Gershkovich marks a significant step in his case. His pretrial detention had been extended repeatedly, though his court appearances offered glimpses of how he was faring in Moscow’s notoriously oppressive Lefortovo Prison. His trial is likely to take place under a veil of secrecy, the Journal reported. A trial date has not been announced. Biden has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to release Gershkovich. There has also been reporting that Russian and American authorities are negotiating over a potential prisoner swap that could include Gershkovich. But recent claims from Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, have raised fears that he may have jeopardized those sensitive talks: Trump suggested that Putin would release Gershkovich if he retakes the White House, claiming that the Russian president “will do that for me, but not for anyone else.”
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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