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Evan Gershkovich sentenced to 16 years
Evan Gershkovich, Wall Street Journal reporter, has been convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years on charges that his employer and the U.S. have rejected as fabricated. Gershkovich was detained in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. He was accused of spying for the U.S., and has been behind bars ever since.
A Russian court has handed down its sentence for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich after over a year of proceedings.
The court found Gershkovich, 32, guilty of "gathering secret information" while reporting on a trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg.
He has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Prosecutors claimed Gershkovich gathered secret information on orders from the CIA about Uralvagonzavod, a plant about 90 miles north of Yekaterinburg that produces and repairs tanks and other military equipment.
The U.S. government classifies Gershkovich as "wrongfully detained," and is seeking his immediate release through diplomatic channels. He has also personally denied all charges, along with The Wall Street Journal.
"Evan’s wrongful detention has been an outrage since his unjust arrest 477 days ago, and it must end now," The Wall Street Journal said Thursday in a statement.
The trial of Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich arrested in Russia on espionage charges began in the city of Yekaterinburg, the Sverdlovsk Region, Russia on June 26, 2024. (Photo by Sverdlovsk Regional Court/Anadolu via Getty Images)
It continued, "Even as Russia orchestrates its shameful sham trial, we continue to do everything we can to push for Evan’s immediate release and to state unequivocally: Evan was doing his job as a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Bring him home now."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously alluded to swapping the reporter for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian national jailed in 2019 for killing a Georgian citizen living in Berlin who had fought against Russian forces in Chechnya.
Judges said Krasikov had acted on the instructions of Russian authorities.
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Gershkovich is the first known Western journalist to be arrested on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia. He is being held in Moscow's Lefortovo prison.
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