2024-08-06 09:20:52
The footage shows security officers roughly grabbing the Gershkovichs by the neck, apparently in a bar or restaurant. A 32-year-old US citizen was arrested in 2023. March in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg and later sentenced to 16 years in a colony for espionage.
He pleaded not guilty, and the White House and his employer denounced the case as fabricated. Gershkovich, Whelan and other political prisoners were freed Thursday in the biggest prisoner swap since the Cold War.
Video and audio material about E. Gershkovich’s arrest was published on social networks by the Kremlin-funded RT channel. AFP could not verify the authenticity of the footage.
RT wrote on its Telegram channel that the footage was “specifically aimed at Western skeptics” and that it purported to show that “the transfer of secret information about Russian military production was openly discussed.”
E. Gershkovich is shown meeting with the contact person in a restaurant, placing a notebook, pens and phone on the table. This is shot from different angles.
In the audio, which appears to have been edited, Gershkovich’s voice can be heard asking in Russian, “How best can we do this?” and outlining how he plans to obtain information for the article. Another man says, “Be very careful because this is classified information.”
The video shows a group of men breaking into a basement bar. Security officers grab E. Gershkovich, one roughly grabs his head and handcuffs his hands behind his back.
The journalist is not seen to resist, but is placed face down on the floor and a man kneed into his back.
Pro-Kremlin channel REN TV also published video of Mr Whelan washing his hands in a toilet, said to be at the Metropole hotel in central Moscow. A man comes and gives him something small and he puts it in his pocket. According to REN TV, it was allegedly a memory card with “secret information about the composition of FST” (Federal Security Service) personnel.
Mr Whelan, who holds citizenship of the US, UK, Canada and Ireland, was arrested in 2018 and will be released on bail in 2020. sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage.
2024-08-06 09:20:52