Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and the U.S. government dismiss the reporter’s conviction on espionage charges in a Russian court as fabricated.
Gershkovich was sentenced Friday to 16 years in prison after the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in the city of Yekaterinburg, approximately 880 miles east of Moscow, held a closed session. Gershkovich was arrested in the city on a reporting trip in March 2023. His trial began in June.
The Associated Press reports that Gershkovich was present for the verdict and that his head was shaved. The reason for his hair being shaved is unknown. He was sentenced to a maximum security penal colony. When the judge asked the reporter if he understood the verdict, Gershkovich said “yes, your honor” in Russian.
The American-born son of parents born in the USSR, he is the first journalist from the Western world arrested on charges of espionage in post-Soviet Russia. Authorities in Russia presented no evidence of the charges but claimed he gathered secret information for the United States while in Russia.
The U.S. government is committed to Gershkovich’s release and said he is “wrongfully detained.”
Gershkovich’s is a “disgraceful, sham conviction,” according to Journal publisher Almar Latour and Top Editor Emma Tucker. “Journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until he’s released. This must end now,” Latour and Tucker said.
The proceedings were called “nothing more than a sham trial” by a top White House spokesperson.
“Evan has never been employed by the United States government. Evan is not a spy. Journalism is not a crime. And Evan should never have been detained in the first place,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday. “Russia has failed to justify Evan’s continued detention. He, like fellow American Paul Whelan, is simply being used as a bargaining chip.”
Approximately a year before Gershkovich’s arrest, Russian President Vladimir Putin created laws that criminalize criticism of Russia’s war with Ukraine. Many foreign journalists left Russia.
The prosecution and the defense have 15 days to appeal Gershkovich’s sentence before he is transferred to prison.
In 2022, Russia and the U.S. negotiated a prisoner swap to free WNBA player Brittney Griner, who was serving a nine-year sentence for possessing cannabis, and bring arms dealer Viktor Bout back to Russia.
Marine veteran Trevor Reed, who was serving nine years for assaulting a police officer, was also swapped for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was serving a 20-year prison sentence in the U.S. for conspiring to smuggle cocaine.
Putin has hinted he is open to swapping Gershkovich for a Russian named Vadim Krasikov, who is serving a life sentence in Germany for a murder in 2019.
Reporters without Borders condemned Gershkovich’s sentence and calls for his immediate release and safe return to the U.S.
“The sentencing of Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison is outrageous, and is the result of a trial that cannot be considered fair or free by any means. This verdict should be immediately overturned. Journalists are not spies, and conflating journalism with espionage has highly dangerous implications for press freedom. Targeting Gershkovich in this way is another blatant example of unacceptable state hostage-taking by Russia. We urge his own government, the United States, to do everything in its power to secure his immediate release and his safe travel home,” said Rebecca Vincent, Reporter without Borders’ Director of Campaigns.
The organization said the conviction is part of Russia’s “unprecedented crackdown on independent media forced into exile, accelerated after its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The Russian justice system is not content to persecute local journalists; it is also targeting foreign journalists.”
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who is an American and Russian citizen, was arbitrarily detained Oct. 18, 2023. On July 4, Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Gordon was sentenced in absentia to 14 years in prison.
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