U.S. Reporter Appears In Court To Appeal Russia Detention
By AFP
A Russian court on Tuesday deferred a ruling on the pre-trial detention of US journalist Evan Gershkovich, held in a notorious Moscow prison on spy charges for almost six months.
The 31-year-old, who is the Wall Street Journal’s Moscow correspondent, was detained in late March during a reporting trip to the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
Gershkovich smiled from behind the defendant’s glass cage as he kept his hands in the pockets of his jeans, an AFP reporter at a court in Moscow said.
The Moscow City Court, where the hearing was held, later said it will send the case to another court in the Russian capital — the Lefortovo Court.
Last month, a Russian court extended the journalist’s detention by another three months until November 30.
Gershkovich continued to report from Russia despite a large part of the Western press leaving the country after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine.
Gershkovich became the first Western journalist to be arrested by Moscow on espionage charges since the Cold War, and his arrest marked a further crackdown on media freedom in Russia.
US authorities and the Wall Street Journal have denied the charges, saying Gershkovich was simply doing his job.
US ambassador Lynne Tracy was present at the hearing and told reporters that Washington’s position on the reporter’s case “remains unwavering.”
“The Russian government locked Evan up for doing his job,” she said.
Russia has not provided any public evidence of the accusations against Gershkovich.
Tracy visited Gershkovich last week at the Lefortovo high-security prison where he has been held.
“Evan is fully aware of the gravity of his situation yet he remains remarkably strong,” she told reporters on Tuesday.
“He knew, for example, that his parents delivered a petition to the United Nations last week, a petition that calls on the UN to make clear that he has been arbitrarily detained and to push for his release,” she said.
“He also shared that he is keeping his mind sharp through games of chess by mail with his father.”
The US has said it is working to bring him home.
Tracy said it was “unacceptable” that Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan “still languish in Russian prisons”.
