Moscow court rejects Evan Gershkovich’s appeal, keeping him in jail until at least June 30
MOSCOW — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will remain jailed on espionage charges until at least the end of June after a Moscow court on Tuesday rejected his appeal seeking to end his pre-trial detention.
The 32-year-old American citizen was arrested at the end of March 2023 during a reporting trip and has spent more than a year behind bars. Last month, his arrest was extended until June 30 after he and his lawyers later appealed. The appeal was heard and rejected by an appeals court in Moscow on Tuesday.
In court on Tuesday, Gerhskovich, wearing a white T-shirt and an open plaid shirt, looked relaxed, at times laughing and chatting with members of his legal team.
His arrest in the city of Yekaterinburg roiled journalists in Russia, where authorities have not detailed what evidence, if any, they have to support the spying allegations.
Gershkovich and his employer have denied the allegations and the US government has said he was wrongfully detained.
Analysts have suggested that Moscow could use captured Americans as a bargaining chip as US-Russian tensions flare over the Kremlin’s military operation in Ukraine. At least two US citizens arrested in Russia in recent years – including WNBA star Brittney Griner – have been exchanged for Russians imprisoned in the US
In December, the U.S. State Department said it had made a major offer to secure the release of Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, another American jailed in Russia on espionage charges, but which the department said Russia had rejected.
Officials did not describe the offer, although Russia would seek the release of Vadim Krasikov, who was given a life sentence in Germany in 2021 for the murder in Berlin of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian. citizen of Chechen descent who had fought against Russian forces in Chechnya and later sought asylum in Germany.
President Vladimir Putin, asked this year about Gershkovich’s release, appeared to refer to Krasikov by pointing to a man jailed by a US ally for “liquidating a bandit” who allegedly killed Russian soldiers during separatist fighting in Chechnya.
Other than this hint, Russian officials have remained mum on the talks. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeatedly said that while “certain contacts” on barter transactions continue, “they must be carried out in absolute silence.”
Gershkovich is the first American reporter arrested in Russia on espionage charges since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for US News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB.
Daniloff was released without charge twenty days later in exchange for an employee of the Soviet Union’s UN mission who was arrested by the FBI, also on espionage charges.