American journalist Evan Gershkovich will stay behind bars in Russian prison until at least June after a Moscow court rejected the Wall Street Journal reporter’s appeal to be released from pretrial detention on Tuesday.
The 32-year-old reporter has been in custody on espionage charges since he was arrested in March 2023 while on assignment in the city of Yekaterinburg.
His detainment was extended until June 30 last month, which he appealed. A Moscow appellate court heard his appeal Tuesday, but it was ultimately rejected.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich gestures in a glass cage in a courtroom at the First Appeals Court of General Jurisdiction in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. APRussian authorities are yet to provide any evidence to support the espionage charges.
Gershkovich and the Wall Street Journal have denied the allegations. The US government claims he is wrongfully detained.
Experts believe that the Kremlin is using American prisoners as bargaining chips amid its strained relationship with the West over its ongoing war with Ukraine, which has prompted international sanctions and crippled its economy.
At least two US citizens arrested in Russia in recent years — including WNBA player Brittney Griner — have been exchanged for Russians jailed in the US. The Phoenix Mercury star was freed in exchange for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as “the Merchant of Death,” in 2022 after she spent 10 months in prison on drug charges.
On the one-year anniversary of Gershkovich’s arrest last month, the Wall Street Journal’s publisher Almar Latour called on President Biden to “push extra hard” for a prisoner exchange or a deal that would get his reporter back home.
Latour said that the paper has been in contact with US officials, who he revealed were “hopeful” about his release.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson that Russia was considering a prisoner swap with the US.
Gershkovich’s parents, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich, said during a January interview that they receive weekly letters from their son, who celebrated his 32nd birthday in the Moscow prison on Oct. 26.
Gershkovich is the first American reporter arrested on espionage charges in Russia since 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for US News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB.
Daniloff was released without charge 20 days later in a deal for an employee of the Soviet Union’s UN mission who was arrested by the FBI, also on spying charges.
With Post Wires
