Journalist dealswith up to 20 years in prison if foundedguilty; court sets next hearing for August 13.
Published On 26 Jun 2024
American reporter Evan Gershkovich went on trial behind closed doors in Russia on charges of espionage 15 months after he was jailed in the city of Yekaterinburg.
The 32-year-old Wall Street Journal pressreporter appeared in a glass cage in the Yekaterinburg courtroom on Wednesday, with his head shaven tidy and using a black-and-blue plaid t-shirt.
Gershkovich is implicated by districtattorneys of event secret info about Uralvagonzavod, a plant making tanks for Russia’s war in Ukraine, on the orders of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Prosecutor Mikael Ozdoyev declared there was evidence that Gershkovich “on the guidelines of the CIA … gathered secret details about the activities of a defense business about the production and repairwork of military devices in the Sverdlovsk area”.
The court stated the next hearing will be held on August 13.
The US Embassy in Russia on Wednesday called for Gershkovich’s release and stated the “Russian authorities haveactually stoppedworking to supply any proof supporting the charges versus him, stoppedworking to validate his continued detention, and stoppedworking to discuss why Evan’s work as a reporter makesup a criminaloffense”.
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Today, a Russian court started closed-door procedures in the case of Wall Street Journal pressreporter, Evan Gershkovich, who hasactually been wrongfully apprehended by Russian authorities for more than a year. https://t.co/edWy9MGvPm— Посольство США в РФ/ U.S. Embassy Russia (@USEmbRu) June 26, 2024
The Journal stated the “secret trial” will “offer him coupleof, if any, of the legal securities he would be accorded in the UnitedStates and other Western nations”.
The pressreporter, his company and the United States federalgovernment strongly reject the claims, stating he was simply doing his task, with accreditation from Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On Tuesday, the Journal’s editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, composed in a letter to readers that Russian judicial procedures are “unfair to Evan and a extension of this travesty of justice that currently hasactually gone on for far too long”.
Tucker stated: “T