A Russian court has extended Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s detention by three months after he was accused of spying while on a reporting trip.
He was arrested on March 29 in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and charged with espionage which carries a possible 20-year prison sentence.
The Federal Security Service, known as FSB, accused him of collecting state secrets about the military industrial complex.
It asked for him to remain in Russia’s notorious Lefortovo Prison while he awaits trial, the country’s state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday.
A hearing was held before a judge at Lefortovo District Court in Moscow who granted the request to extend Gershkovich’s detention until at least August 30.
Pictured during a hearing on April 18: A Russian court has extended Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s detention by three months after he was accused of spying while on a reporting trip
Gershkovich was arrested on March 29 in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and charged with espionage which carries a possible 20-year prison sentence
Gershkovich’s parents Ella and Mikhail Gershkovich waited an hour outside the courtroom before they were allowed in and caught their first glimpse of him since he was arrested.
They were taken away, along with one of his lawyers, when the hearing ended but did not comment on what they saw.
‘We hope he is doing great and that he can be as strong as his mother,’ Gershkovich’s father said before the hearing while his mother wore a ‘Free Evan’ button.
Gershkovich was reportedly working on a story about the Wagner private military company before his arrest.
Russia’s Federal Security Service detained the 31-year-old in Yekaterinburg on March 29 and accused him of trying to obtain classified information about a Russian arms factory.
Gershkovich and the Wall Street Journal both deny the espionage charges, which President Joe Biden called illegal, and the United States has officially deemed him ‘wrongfully detained’.
But the Kremlin said Gershkovich, the first US journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War, was caught ‘red-handed’.
The FSB’s confirmed that Gershkovich was working with press accreditation issued by the Russian foreign ministry.
He is the first American reporter to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for US News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB.
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Gershkovich was using his journalistic credentials as a cover for ‘activities that have nothing to do with journalism’.
Gershkovich had been living in Moscow since 2017, working as a journalist.
A hearing was held before a judge at Lefortovo District Court in Moscow who granted the request to extend Gershkovich’s detention until at least August 30
Gershkovich and the Wall Street Journal both deny the espionage charges, which President Joe Biden called illegal, and the United States has officially deemed him ‘wrongfully detained’
Pictured: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is escorted by officers from the Lefortovsky court to a bus, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, March 30, 2023
He has been held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, which dates from the czarist era and has been a terrifying symbol of repression since Soviet times.
Russian lawyers have said past investigations into espionage cases took a year to 18 months, during which time he could have little contact with the outside world.
He previously appeared in court on April 18 when a Moscow judge upheld his detention.
His legal team had suggested he be freed on bail of 50 million roubles ($614,000) or placed under house arrest but both suggestions were rejected.
Gershkovich was stood in a glass and metal enclosure inside the courtroom, wearing a checked shirt with his arms folded in front of him. He did not say anything during the hearing.
Before it got underway, Gershkovich turned around when one of the Russian reporters in the courtroom told him to ‘Stay Strong!’ and relayed to him that everyone said ‘Hi’.
Gershkovich has been held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, which dates from the czarist era and has been a terrifying symbol of repression since Soviet times
Gershkovich was reportedly working on a story about the Wagner private military company before his arrest
Lynne Marie Tracy, the US ambassador to Russia, was also present in the courtroom last month.
At the time, she said that she had visited Gershkovich in prison, and described him as being ‘in good health and remains strong.’
A prisoner exchange, similar to the one which secured the release of American basketball star Brittney Griner last year, will not be able to take place until a verdict is reached, according to Russian officials.
But Biden’s administration are working on a way to secure an early release.
Gershkovich is a US citizen whose parents are from the Soviet Union and he grew up in Princeton, New Jersey and graduated in 2010 from Princeton High School.
He studied philosophy at Bowdoin College in Maine, where he played soccer and graduated in 2014.
