2024-07-21 07:59:13
Yekaterinburg court on Friday at 3 p.m. local time announced the guilty verdict and sentence. Earlier on Friday, it emerged that Russia had sought an 18-year prison sentence for the Wall Street Journal journalist, state news agency TASS reported, citing court records.
On Friday morning, the court heard the closing arguments, and E. Gershkovich himself gave the closing speech behind closed doors.
The rapid unraveling of the case came just weeks after Gershkovich made his first appearance in a glass cage with a freshly shaved head when his trial began on June 26. That day, he stood with his arms crossed, occasionally smiling and waving to the crowd of reporters.
E. Gershkovich was arrested when in 2023 March. was reporting for the Wall Street Journal during a trip to Yekaterinburg, and was later accused of spying for the CIA. Russian authorities have never publicly provided any evidence to support their claims.
Two weeks after his arrest in 2023 March. The US State Department has labeled him as illegally detained and called for his immediate release.
In a statement released Thursday, his employer said he had been arrested without reason.
“Since Evan’s wrongful arrest 477 days ago, his arrest has been an outrage, and it must end now,” Dow Jones told the WSJ.
“While Russia is conducting its own bogus trial, we continue to do everything we can to secure Evan’s immediate release and state unequivocally: Evan was doing his job as a journalist, and journalism is not a crime.” Bring him home immediately.”
After his arrest, he was held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison, spending almost every hour in a small cell. He spent his time writing letters to his friends and family, his parents told the WSJ in an interview, adding that he was only allowed an hour’s walk a day.
Gershkovich, the US government and the WSJ have strongly denied the allegations against him.
US and Western officials have accused Russia of using Gershkovich and other foreign detainees as a bargaining chip for possible prisoner swaps.
in 2022 US basketball star Brittney Griner was traded for arms dealer Victor Buta. But Russia has refused to release another jailed US citizen, Paul Whelan, in return for a former colonel from Russia’s domestic spy agency.
February. In an interview with right-wing US media personality Tucker Carlson, Russian leader Vladimir Putin hinted that an agreement could be reached with the US on Gershkovich’s release and hinted at the 2019 release of a Russian citizen. the case of a person convicted of murder in Berlin.
Gershkovich’s trial highlighted the extent to which Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine has damaged relations between Moscow and Washington.
In the indictment, Russian prosecutors alleged that Gershkovich collected secret information about the Russian tank factory “following instructions from the CIA” and “using meticulous conspiratorial methods.”
Mr. Biden says he is doing his best
President Joe Biden said Friday that the United States is working to secure the release of journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony in Russia on espionage charges.
“We are making every effort to secure Evan’s release and we will not stop doing so,” Mr. Biden said in a statement, adding that the Wall Street Journal employee “did not commit any crime” and was “targeted” by Moscow because he is a reporter and a US citizen.
2024-07-21 07:59:13