A Moscow court on Tuesday upheld the detention of The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. He was detained during a reporting trip last month and is being held on espionage charges. Both the Wall Street Journal and the U.S. government have vehemently denied the allegation.
Gershkovich, a 31-year-old U.S. citizen, was denied bail after a closed-door hearing and ordered to remain in the Russian capital’s Lefortovo prison awaiting trial. The prison is often used to house high-profile political prisoners.
The hearing was held behind closed doors, as is typical for most hearings related to espionage allegations. It is also extremely rare in Russia for defendants to win appeals or be acquitted in such cases, where espionage laws are increasingly being used for political ends, according to Western officials, activists and Russian lawyers .
“The allegations are baseless and we call on the Russian Federation to immediately release” Gershkovich, Tracy told reporters in front of the court after the hearing. She also called for the release of another American held by Russia, Paul Whelan. The U.S. government also determined that Whelan was improperly detained.
Before the hearing began, reporters and camera crews were allowed to snap photos of Gershkovic, who was wearing a blue checked shirt and a pair of faded jeans. This is Gershkovic’s first public appearance since March 30. Subsequent hearings were closed to reporters.
Gershkovich was filmed pacing the dock and conferring with his lawyers before the judge delivered his ruling. The dock is a transparent box used to hold defendants in Russian courts.
Gershkovich, a journalist licensed by the Russian foreign ministry to work in the country, was detained while reporting from Yekaterinburg, a city in the Ural Federal District nearly 900 miles east of Moscow. He was formally charged with espionage on April 7, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, which succeeded the KGB, said Gershkovich “collected classified state information on the activities of a company in Russia’s military industry at the direction of the US side”.
Russian authorities have not publicly presented evidence to support the charges against Gershkovich.
The case carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted. Almost all espionage cases in Russia end with a guilty verdict.
Russian authorities have ordered Gershkovich to be detained until May 29 ahead of his trial. They can request an extension of this period.
Maria Korchagina of the ZKS law firm representing Gershkovic told reporters outside the courthouse that lawyers had asked for Gershkovic to be transferred to home confinement, agreeing to restrictions on his movements or allowing him to be released on bail. The law firm was hired by Dow Jones & Co., the parent company of The Wall Street Journal. Korchagina said Dow was willing to post 50 million rubles ($600,000) in bail. The court has declined to grant the request.
Gershkovic’s lawyer said he pleaded not guilty to the espionage charge.
“Our client has pleaded not guilty and is prepared to prove it,” Korchagina said. She said Gershkovic issued a statement at Tuesday’s hearing emphasizing his innocence.
Another ZKS lawyer, Tatyana Nozhkina, who represented Gershkovic, said they were planning another appeal against the pretrial detention.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “We are deeply concerned by the news that Russia will continue to improperly detain Evan after a bumbling judicial process.” Release Gershkovich and Whelan immediately.
In a joint statement, Almar Latour, chief executive of Dow Jones and publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and Emma Tucker, editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, said: “While we anticipated this development, this situation is disappointing. .”
“Evan has been wrongly detained and the espionage charges against him are false,” they wrote. “We demand his immediate release and are doing everything we can to secure his release,” they said.
Gershkovic’s case could be months away, legal experts said, during which time investigators gather trial material and there will be further hearings to prolong his arrest.
Before the hearing began, journalists, including reporters from Russia’s state broadcaster, were granted brief access to the courtroom to film Gershkovich.
“It’s great to see him and see him in good shape, but I can see he’s nervous,” said Gershkovic’s friend and fellow journalist Vasily Polonsky. Shouted a few words of encouragement.
Reporters waited in another room as the hearing proceeded. A television showed the final 10 minutes of the hearing, during which the judge quickly read out the verdict, then turned to Gershkovic to ask if he understood. Gershkovic replied: “No need. Everything is clear. Thank you.”
Gershkovic’s arrest has sparked international condemnation. U.S. President Joe Biden called the arrest “simply illegal.” Former Vice President Mike Pence has urged the Biden administration to expel Russian diplomats.
Gershkovic remains optimistic and in good health, Nozhkina said. He spent his time watching cooking shows, exercising during the hour each day he was allowed out of his cell, and reading Russian classics. “We laughed a lot and joked a lot,” she said. “In situations like this, a sense of humor can help.”
“He was very competitive,” she added. “He is prepared to continue defending his innocence … and the freedom of the press.”
Gershkovich’s mother, Ella Milman, and father, Mikhail Gershkovich, who immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union decades ago, accepted the ” In a video interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, they expressed optimism that their son would eventually be released.
“It’s one of those qualities of being an American that we’ve imbibed, you know, being optimistic and believing in happy endings,” Millman said in the video.
Last Friday, she received a handwritten letter from her son in Russian to his family in prison.
“I would like to say that I do not lose hope,” Gershkovic wrote in the two-page letter.
While Russia’s judicial system guarantees defendants the right to a jury trial that is open to the public, the doctrine of immunity in espionage cases means Gershkovic’s trial will likely be tried by a single judge and held in secret.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has a legal education, has promised what he describes as “the dictatorship of the law”. Activists, Western officials and Russian lawyers say he has been using Russia’s legal system to punish political opponents and silence dissent.
According to a recent U.S. State Department report, Russian judges “are influenced by the executive branch, the armed forces, and other security forces, especially in high-profile or politically sensitive cases.”
Although espionage cases were once relatively rare in Russia, they have become more frequent after Putin took office, especially since Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. According to Ivan Pavlov, a Russian lawyer who specializes in espionage cases, there are about 50 such cases a year.
Pavlov left Russia in 2021 when he was under investigation for defending a journalist accused of leaking military secrets.
So far, there has been only one case in which a Russian court has dropped a treason or espionage charge against a defendant before trial, Pavlov said. The accused, mother-of-seven Svetlana Davydova, is accused of passing information about Russian troops to Ukraine. She was released in 2015 following a major public campaign calling for Davydova’s release on humanitarian grounds.
“But it was a different time, and it feels like we were on another planet now,” Pavlov said.