A Moscow court on January 26 rejected the latest appeal by U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich over his pretrial detention on an espionage charge that he, his employer The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), and the U.S. government reject.
Gershkovich is one of two U.S. citizens held in pretrial detention in Russia on espionage charges they and the U.S. government reject as politically motivated. The second is former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.
A third U.S. citizen, RFERL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who also holds Russian citizenship, has been in pretrial detention on charges that the U.S. government and her employer say are reprisals for her work.*
"The period of detention of Evan Gershkovich...is extended by two months...until March 30, 2024," the Lefortovo District Court said on Telegram.
The court hearing was held behind closed doors because of what the court called the "classified" nature of the case.
Maria Korchagina, a lawyer for Gershkovich, had asked the court to commute Gershkovich's pretrial detention into house arrest or a 50 million ruble ($558,000) bail. The deposit was offered by Dow Jones & Company, the owner of WSJ.
SEE ALSO: 'It's All Becoming Less Bearable': RFE/RL Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva Marks 100 Days In Russian Custody“It is chilling and outrageous that Evan has now spent 10 months of his life in prison, simply for doing his job,” Dow Jones said in a statement following the court’s decision.
“While these are clearly sham proceedings about patently false charges, we intend to appeal today’s ruling, as we have in the past. Journalism is not a crime, and we continue to demand Evan’s immediate release.”
Gershkovich was detained in late March 2023 in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said at the time of the arrest that it had opened an espionage case against the reporter for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex at the behest of the U.S. government -- accusations the WSJ and the United States firmly rejected.
In April, the U.S. State Department designated Gershkovich as wrongfully detained, which raises the profile of his case and gives the department grounds to act in the interests of the U.S. citizen's release.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a press conference on December 14, said there had been "dialogue" between U.S. and Russian officials over the release of Gershkovich and Whelan, who has also been designated as wrongfully detained by the State Department.
RFE/RL journalist Kurmasheva has also been held in pretrial detention for more than 100 days.
She was initially charged with failing to ask the Russian government to register her as a “foreign agent” and, two months later, she was charged with spreading falsehoods about the Russian military. The “foreign agent” charge carries a maximum prison term of five years, while the second charge is punishable by up to 10 years. Kurmasheva and RFE/RL deny the allegations and say Moscow is punishing her for her journalistic work.
RFE/RL has called on the State Department to also designate Kurmasheva as wrongfully detained.
"We hope the U.S. State Department will quickly designate Alsu as 'wrongfully detained,'" acting RFE/RL President Stephen Capus said in a statement on January 25.
"Even one day unjustly behind bars is a tragedy, but a U.S. citizen wrongfully held in a Russian prison for 100 days is outrageous," Capus said.