Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich was tried behind closed doors this Wednesday in Yekaterinburg, 15 months after his arrest in the Russian city in the Ural Mountains on espionage charges that he, his employer and the United States government deny. vehemently.
Gershkovich, born in the United States and the son of immigrants from the Soviet Union, is the first Western journalist arrested on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia. Russian authorities arrested Gershkovich when he was on a trip for a report in Yekaterinburg and claimed that he was collecting secret information for US intelligence. The State Department has stated that it was “unjustly detained”thus committing the Government to decisively seek his release.
The 32-year-old journalist appeared in court in a glass cage for accused, with a shaved head and dressed in a black and blue checkered shirt. There was a yellow padlock on the cage. Reporters were allowed into the courtroom for a few minutes before proceedings were closed.
Jay Conti, executive vice president and general counsel of Dow Jones, in an interview with the AP this week described the trial as a sham. “Was a accredited journalist who did journalismand this is a false judgment, with false accusations that are completely made up,” Conti said.
The ‘Wall Street Journal’ has made an effort to keep the case in the public eye, which has become a current issue In the combative months leading up to the United States presidential elections.
After his arrest on March 29, 2023, Gershkovich was held in the Lefortovo prison in Moscow. The journalist showed signs of remaining healthy during the court hearings in which his appeals for his release were rejected.
“Evan has demonstrated a resilience and one force remarkable in the face of this grim situation,” said US Ambassador Lynne Tracy on the first anniversary of his arrest.
Gershkovich enfrenta up to 20 years in prison if the court finds him guilty, which is virtually certain. Russian courts convict more than 99% of defendants who appear before them, and prosecutors can appeal sentences they consider too lenient, and can even appeal acquittals. Furthermore, Russia’s interpretation of what constitutes espionage is broad.
Gershkovich’s arrest came about a year after Russian President, Vladimir Putinwill drive laws that persecute journalists, criminalizing criticism of the invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls a “special military operation,” and statements deemed to discredit the Army. Most foreign journalists left the country after the laws were passed, although many returned in the following months between concerns that the Russian authorities would act against them.
Protests over the prolonged preventive detention of a Spanish journalist in Poland under accusations of espionage
Gershkovich’s is not the only case of a Western journalist imprisoned outside his country. The Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain (FAPE), other unions and professional groups have called a rally for this Wednesday in front of the Polish consulate in Madrid to demand the release of Spanish reporter Pablo González, detained for 28 months in Poland in preventive prison.
González, of dual Spanish and Russian nationality, was reporting from Poland on the arrival of Ukrainian refugees to the country at the time of his arrest. But the Polish Internal Security Agency accused of spy for Russian military intelligencewithout the reasons to justify his detention having been detailed in a formal judicial accusation.
The journalist could face a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, but his preventive detention has already been extended nine times since his arrest on February 28, 2022. FAPE and other journalist organizations have repeatedly demanded the reporter release and the holding a “fair” trial and “with guarantees”, or “the immediate repatriation to hold the trial in Spain”.
