Russian court extends the pretrial detention for WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich accused of spying

A Russian court Tuesday extended the pre-trial detention of US journalist Evan Gershkovich, forcing the Wall Street Journal reporter to remain behind bars at least until next month, marking a full year in jail for him.

The Moscow City Court rejected an appeal filed by Gershkovich’s lawyers against his detention, upholding an earlier ruling to keep him in custody until at least March 30. 

The judgment means Gershkovich, 32, will have spent an entire year behind bars by that time. He was arrested in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.

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Gershkovich was charged with espionage – accusations rejected by him, the Wall Street Journal and the White House, which has declared him wrongfully detained. 

Russian authorities have not shared any evidence to support the espionage charges. Gershkovich is the first Western journalist to be held on espionage charges since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Tuesday’s appeal was a technical hearing against the earlier ruling to extend his pre-trial detention and did not concern the substance of his case. 

US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy, who attended the hearing, slammed Gershkovich’s ongoing detention. 

“The charges against Evan are baseless. The Russian government has locked Evan up simply for reporting news,” Tracy said, according to the Moscow Times. 

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that Russia was ready to negotiate a deal to release Gershkovich. 

Putin has insisted Gershkovich was “caught red-handed when he was secretly getting classified information” and hinted that Moscow would trade him for the release of Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence in Germany. 

German officials have not commented on if there had been any effort by Russia to secure the swap. 

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In December, the US State Department said Russia had rejected several proposals that would free Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan who has been jailed in Russia since December 2018. 

Whelan, who was also arrested on espionage-related charges that he and the government deny, was sentenced to 16 years. 

With Post wires