A Russian court has extended by two months the pretrial detention of U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal being held on spying charges that he, his newspaper and Washington call “false.”
After holding a session closed to the media on November 28, the Lefortovo district court of Moscow announced on Telegram it had ruled to keep the 32-year-old correspondent in custody at least until January 30.
“Evan has now been unjustly imprisoned for nearly 250 days, and every day is a day too long,” The Wall Street Journal said in a statement after the ruling.
“The accusations against him are categorically false and his continued imprisonment is a brazen and outrageous attack on a free press, which is critical for a free society,” it added.
Gershkovich was detained in late March in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said at the time of the arrest that it had opened an espionage case against Gershkovich for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex. He denies the charges.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
The White House and The Wall Street Journal have said Gershkovich was working and is a properly accredited journalist in Russia.
“We are deeply concerned by the court’s decision to extend his detention for another two months. We reiterate our call for Evan’s immediate release,” the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, adding it had representatives inside the courtroom during the session.
Since his arrest, Gershkovich has been held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, a notorious institution dating back to tsarist times. Seen as a symbol of Soviet repression, Lefortovo is where Russia holds most suspects in espionage cases.
On August 24, the Lefortovo district court extended for three months, until November 30, Gershkovich’s detention. On October 10, the court rejected Gershkovich’s appeal against the extension.
A U.S. citizen based…
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