A court in Russia sentenced American Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony on Friday.
The sentence was the culmination of a closed-door trial over espionage charges. The Journal has vehemently denied the allegations against Gershkovich and described the legal proceedings as a “shameful sham,” while the U.S. State Department considers the journalist “wrongfully detained.”
Gershkovich, 32, was detained by Russia’s FSB security service in March 2023 while on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg, about 900 miles east of Moscow. Prosecutors claimed Gershkovich was acting on behalf of the CIA when he allegedly obtained secret information about a Russian defense contractor.
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The Journal notes that Gershkovich was accredited as a foreign correspondent by Russian authorities and was in “Yekaterinburg and elsewhere in the Sverdlovsk region for the sole purpose of reporting.” Local authorities did not present any public evidence to support the allegations against the journalist, according to the Journal.
“This disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist,” read a statement from Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker and Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour. “We will continue to do everything possible to press for Evan’s release and to support his family. Journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until he’s released. This must end now.”
The sentence, which represents the first conviction of an American reporter for espionage in Russia since the end of the Cold War, comes after an expedited trial process. The final two days of proceedings were originally scheduled for August but the hearing was unexpectedly brought forward to Thursday.
Some Russian observers argue that a speedy conviction may indicate that a potential prisoner swap is imminent, according to the BBC, as such an exchange typically requires a verdict to have been reached in Russian judicial practice. Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled openness to such a deal during his February interview with Tucker Carlson.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said last month that Gershkovich is “simply being used as a bargaining chip” along with Paul Whelan, a retired U.S. Marine also jailed in Russia.
Kirby added that the Biden administration “will continue to do everything it can to bring them home, and that includes, right now, the effort to try to find a way to get these guys released back to their families, where they belong, is ongoing.”
