Inmates have described scenes of isolation and intense interrogation inside crowded cells at Russia’s notorious Lefortovo prison, where Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been locked up.
The 31-year-old US citizen was arrested in Yekaterinburg in the Urals on espionage charges after he visited the country’s fourth-largest city to write about the feared Wagner group.
He appeared in Moscow’s Lefortovo district court on Thursday, where he pleaded not guilty and ruled that he should be held in pretrial detention until May 29, according to Russian media.
The prison where he is being held has a long and violent history. It’s where political prisoners were mass-executed under Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin in the 1930s and where KGB officers tortured opponents.
It is also currently home to former US Navy veteran Paul Whelan, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020 after being charged with espionage.
The notorious Russian prison of Lefortovo, built in 1881, has a long and violent history
Inmates have described scenes of isolation and intense interrogations inside crowded cells at the facility where Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been held.
Pictured: The WSJ journalist was escorted out of the Lefortovo court in Moscow, flanked by authorities. He was seen piling into the law enforcement van, keeping his head down.
Gershkovich, wearing a yellow hooded jacket, was seen being led out of the back of a darkened Russian police vehicle before being taken to court.
He was later seen piling into the law enforcement van, keeping his head down.
The journalist is likely to spend the first ten days in Lefortovo prison in an isolated cell, which is reportedly the protocol for foreigners accused of espionage.
It is used as a technique to wear down inmates and make them more susceptible to interrogation.
Inmates are reportedly dressed in blue robes and locked in small individual cells and claim their belongings are taken away during this “quarantine time”.
Zoya Svetova, who monitors prison conditions with the Moscow Public Oversight Commission, a non-governmental organization, said officials want to psychologically break foreign prisoners.
“This period is kind of a humiliating time meant to ‘cook them up,'” he previously told the Daily Beast.
“People feel naked, without private belongings.
“No other prison in Moscow receives more hostile treatment during the quarantine period than Lefortovo.
“Once we met a Turkish citizen in that part of the prison for foreign inmates. He managed to get a fur hat and wore it constantly. he was freezing’
Gershkovich will be trapped in a cramped cell spanning eight square meters and will only be allowed out for one hour a day under confinement rules.
The cells are believed to contain beds made of iron bars with a paper-thin mattress and pillow, a sink and a toilet bowl.
Phone calls are prohibited and only attorney visits are allowed. Gershkovich may receive letters, but they are read first by corrections officers.
The prison was used for mass executions during Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge between 1936 and 1938.
It was also an infamous KGB prison and interrogation site for political prisoners for decades.
Photo: Evan Gershkovich. Moscow has been accused in the past of arresting foreigners, especially Americans, to use in barter exchanges for Russians detained in the US.
Reporter Evan Gershkovic, an accredited foreign correspondent, in Moscow, was detained for alleged “illegal activities” and was “suspected of espionage for the US government,” the Federal Security Service said.
Historically, Russian prisoners have used dim or bright lights, insufficient food or blankets, and limited access to showers to bring prisoners down.
Lefortovo Prison was built in 1881 and is the most secure prison in Russia, housing accused terrorists, former high-profile officials and “spies”.
Lefortovo’s cells reportedly only have cold water and inmates are only allowed to shower once a week.
And the section of the prison where the foreign inmates are kept is freezing and the inmates are not equipped to deal with the cold.
Lefortovo Prison was used for mass executions during the Great Purge of the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, between 1936 and 1938.
The facility was used by the NKVD secret police for torture, violent interrogations and executions to solidify Stalin’s control over civilians through fear.
At the time, there were rumors of a huge meat grinder being used to grind up the bodies of people tortured to death and their remains being dumped into the sewers.
It was also an infamous KGB prison and interrogation site for political prisoners for decades.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the writer who exposed the horrors of the gulag, was held in prison, as was Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian spy who defected to London, where he was later killed by radioactive poisoning.
Lefortovo prison currently houses former Marine Whelan, who was convicted of spying for the United States and jailed for 16 years after a closed-door trial.
Lefortovo prison was used by the NKVD secret police for torture, violent interrogations and executions to solidify Joseph Stalin’s control over civilians through fear.
Former Marine Paul Whelan is an inmate in prison after he was convicted of spying for the United States and jailed for 16 years after a closed trial.
The 53-year-old said he was set up and thought a USB stick given to him by a Russian acquaintance contained vacation photos.
He was detained by the Russian Federal Security Service in a Moscow hotel room on December 28, 2018. His brother claimed he was visiting for a wedding.
The 53-year-old said he was set up and thought a USB stick given to him by a Russian acquaintance contained vacation photos.
Gershkovich, educated in the United States and an accredited foreign correspondent in Moscow, was detained for alleged “illegal activities” and was “suspected of spying for the United States government,” the Federal Security Service (FSB) said.
The Russian president’s spokesman, Vladimir Putin, said Gershkovich had been “caught red-handed.” He could face up to 20 years in prison if he is found guilty of espionage.
The FSB accused Gershkovich of collecting “information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the companies of the Russian military-industrial complex constituting a state secret.”
He said that he “was acting on the orders of the United States to collect information about the activities of one of the companies of the Russian military-industrial complex that constitutes a state secret.”
His lawyer, Daniil Berman, could not confirm how he pleaded guilty, because he was barred from entering the courtroom.
Gershkovich could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of espionage.
The Journal said in a statement: ‘The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the FSB’s allegations and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich. We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family.’
The FSB is a counterintelligence and internal security agency that is the primary successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB.
Putin’s spokesman did not elaborate on why he believed Evan Gershkovich was allegedly caught red-handed.