MOSCOW — MOSCOW (AP) — Evan Gershkovich, Wall Street Journal reporter will appear in court for the second time on Thursday on charges of espionage, allegations he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny, according to court records.
The trial is taking place behind closed doors in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Ural Mountains where the 32-year-old journalist was arrested during a reporting trip.
At the first hearing last month, the court had adjourned the hearing until mid-August. But Gershkovich’s lawyers asked the court to hold the second hearing earlier, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti and independent news site Mediazona reported Tuesday, citing court officials.
Gershkovich’s employer and U.S. officials have denounced the trial as a sham and unlawful.
“Evan was never an employee of the United States government. Evan is not a spy. Journalism is not a crime. And Evan should never have been detained in the first place,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said last month.
Authorities arrested Gershkovich on March 29, 2023, claiming, without providing any evidence, that he was gathering classified information for the US.
The Russian prosecutor general’s office said last month that the journalist is accused of “collecting classified information” on CIA orders about Uralvagonzavod, a factory about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Yekaterinburg that produces and repairs tanks and other military equipment. It has also been seen as a symbol of pro-Kremlin sentiment since one of its managers publicly condemned anti-government protests in Moscow in 2011-12.
If found guilty, Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison.
Russia has flagged the possibility of a prisoner swap with Gershkovich, but it says a ruling must first be made — which could take months — and that ruling could take months or years.
A conviction is virtually certain. Russian courts convict more than 99% of the defendants who appear before them, and prosecutors can appeal sentences they consider too lenient, and they can even appeal acquittals.
The American-born son of immigrants from the USSR, Gershkovich is the first Western journalist to be arrested on charges of espionage in post-Soviet Russia. The State Department has declared him “unlawfully detained,” committing the government to assertively demanding his release.
Gershkovich’s arrest came about a year after President Vladimir Putin passed laws that deterred journalists, criminalized criticism of what the Kremlin called a “special military operation” in Ukraine, and made statements that discredited the military. Foreign journalists largely left after the laws were passed; many returned in the months that followed, but there were concerns about whether Russian authorities would take action against them.
After he was arrested, fears arose that Russia targeted Americans as animosity between Moscow and Washington grew. Last year, Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian national reporter for the U.S. government-funded Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, was arrested for allegedly violating the law requiring “foreign agents” to register.
Another dual citizen, Ksenia Karelina of Los Angeles, is on trial, also in Yekaterinburg, on charges of treason for allegedly raising money for a Ukrainian organization that supplied weapons and ammunition to Kiev. Several Western reporters have been forced to leave after Gershkovich’s arrest because Russia refused to extend their visas.