Wall Street JournalreporterEvan Gershkovichappeared in court in Russia on Tuesday at an appeal hearing against his arrest and detention at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison.
According toBBC News,the Russian court rejected the appeal against his pre-trial detention.
The journalist’s appearance in court was to determine whether he will still be held in pre-trial detention at the prison until at least May 29, according toSky News.
Gershkovich previously filed a complaint against the decision to keep him in custody while the case is being investigated, perThe Guardian.
Evan Gershkovich.MAXIM SHIPENKOV/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
In footage posted onThe Guardian’s website from the hearing, Gershkovich was seen standing in a glass and metal structure in the courtroom.
According to the outlet, the 31-year-old U.S. citizen — who wore a navy plaid shirt and had his arms folded — did not say anything while being filmed.
“Thecharges against Evanare baseless and we call on the Russian Federation to immediately release him,” she said.
Gershkovich was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg last month for what Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed was “espionage in the interests of the American government.” If convicted, the charge has a maximum jail term of 20 years.
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In astatement to Russian state media, FSB claimed, “It has been established that E. Gershkovich, acting on an assignment from the American side, was gathering information classified as a state secret about the activity of one of the enterprises of Russia’s military-industrial complex.”
Gershkovich’s employer theWSJreleased a statementin support of the journalist following his arrest and denied the allegations against him.
It read, “The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich. We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family.”
In January, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated the Wagner Group as a Transnational Criminal Organization, saying its leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin is “a[Vladimir] Putincrony and the target of multiple U.S. sanctions"according to a press releaseon its website.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharovaposted a message on her Telegram channel, which when translated from Russian to English claimed, “What an employee of the American edition ofThe Wall Street Journalwas doing in Yekaterinburg has nothing to do with journalism.”
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed Gershkovich “was caught red-handed,” perRussian state media.
According toGershkovich’s author pageon theWSJwebsite, he has worked as a reporter in Russia since 2017. He has also previously worked at The New York Times,Agence France-Presse andMoscow Times.
source: people.com
