U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested on espionage charges in Russia last week, filed an appeal against his detention on Monday, April 4th.
According to Moscow’s Lefortovo district court, Gershkovich’s defense team had filed the appeal against being held at Lefortovo prison while awaiting trial. No date has yet been set by the Moscow City Court for the appeal hearing to take place.
The Wall Street Journal’s foreign correspondent was apprehended last week in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, the administrative center of the Ural Federal District.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Gershkovich had been “acting at the behest of the American side,” collecting information “constituting a state secret about the activities of an enterprise within Russia’s military-industrial complex.”
The FSB subsequently opened a criminal case against Gershkovich under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code (“Espionage”). On March 30th, Moscow’s Lefortovo district court approved of Gershkovich’s detainment until May 29th.
Since his arrest, he has not been able to communicate with the outside world. If convicted of espionage after his trial, Gershkovich could face a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
In an early reaction to the news of Gershkovich’s capture, the White House described the allegations leveled at both the reporter and his government as “ridiculous.”
Gershkovich’s employer, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), has “vehemently denied” the charges against its correspondent, which it called a “vicious affront to a free press.”
Since Gershkovich’s arrest, the news outlet has repeatedly called for his immediate release.
According to the WSJ, Gershkovich is the victim of “hostage diplomacy,” wherein the hostage taker, in this case Russia, hopes to gain leverage over its captive’s government.
Gershkovich was stationed in the WSJ’s Moscow office, having received accreditation from the Russian Foreign Ministry which allowed him to do reporting on the country after the start of the war in Ukraine.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday that the U.S. “will do everything we can to get Evan home.” He however did not comment on whether or when the U.S. would determine that Gershkovich was wrongfully detained:
The State Department has a process here for classifying detentions and they are still working their way through that … It is case by case, when they look at detention of Americans overseas, and whether or not to classify them as wrongful. They are working on this and I know they are working at it very hard. I just could not give you a timeline of what that is going to look like.
Not since the end of the Cold War has a similar case involving a Russia-based American reporter been recorded.
