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Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained in Russia last month, appeared in high spirits as he took the stand in a Moscow courtroom on Tuesday. He smiled at a known journalist friend. He nodded when one of them, Vasily Polonsky, called for people to be patient and through the greetings of colleagues and friends.
This is the first time Mr. Gershkovich, a 31-year-old American, has been seen in public since he was arrested on March 29 while reporting in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg and accused of espionage, a charge the United States and his employer have strenuously denied. At the hearing, the judge rejected an appeal to lift his pre-trial detention, meaning he will remain in custody in Russia for the time being.
Outside the courtroom afterward, his legal team said they had asked the judge to release Mr. Gershkovich from Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison and place him under house arrest. Tatiana Nozhkina, one of Mr. Gershkovich’s lawyers, said, “He insists that he is innocent,” and later, in response to written questions, added that the legal team will appeal the arrest by filing a complaint against the lower court’s decision. with the court of cassation.
Another lawyer representing him, Maria Korchagina, said Mr. Gershkovich was ready to “assert his right to free journalism” and was “ready to defend himself.”
The case against Mr. Gershkovich has brought relations between the United States and Russia to a new low. The Biden administration insisted that he was “wrongfully detained” – meaning the US government sees him as the equivalent of a political hostage held on trumped-up charges – and called for his immediate release. If convicted, Mr. Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in a Russian penal colony.
Speaking from the steps of the Moscow City Court building where the hearing was held on Tuesday, the US ambassador to Russia, Lynne M. Tracy, said it was “sad to see Evan, an innocent journalist detained in these conditions.” He said the “accusations against Evan are baseless” and added that the US government “is calling on the Russian Federation to release him.”
A day earlier, Ms. Tracy met Mr. Gershkovich in Lefortovo Prison, the first consular visit since his detention and followed repeated calls from the State Department for Russia to grant him access. He is expected to be sent back to prison after the hearing. It is one of Russia’s most notorious detention centers, where inmates are reportedly held in isolation with only infrequent visits by lawyers.
Mr. Gershkovich’s case, the first time a Western journalist in Russia has been charged with espionage since the Cold War, has sparked support from colleagues, press freedom groups and international officials.
On Monday, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, condemned Mr Gershkovich’s arrest in a statement made on behalf of dozens of countries. “We urge the authorities of the Russian Federation to release them on political grounds, and to stop the draconian crackdown on freedom of expression, including against members of the media,” she said.
US officials worry that Mr Gershkovich’s case is seen as a sign of a tougher Kremlin crackdown on independent news media and the free flow of information in the country. While the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, has repeatedly claimed that Mr. Gershkovich was caught “red-handed,” Russian authorities have offered no evidence to support the allegations.
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