The Moscow City Court has rejected the appeal by U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich against the extension of his pretrial detention until November 30 on an espionage charge that he, his employer, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), and the U.S. government reject.
The court announced its decision on October 10 after a hearing in the appeal was held behind closed doors, due, as the court said, to classified materials being included in the case.
Gershkovich's lawyers requested a form of pretrial restriction other than incarceration -- such as house arrest -- for their 31-year-old client.
Representatives of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow attended the hearing on October 10.
The Wall Street Journal issued a statement shortly after the court's decision was pronounced, calling Gershkovich's detention "unjust."
"It has now been more than six months since Evan’s unjust arrest, and we are outraged that he continues to be wrongfully detained. The accusation against him is categorically false, and we call for his immediate release." the newspaper said.
Gershkovich was detained in late March in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. Russia's Federal Security Service said at the time of the arrest that it had opened an espionage case against Gershkovich for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex.
A U.S. citizen based in Moscow, Gershkovich had been in Yekaterinburg reporting about the attitude of Russians toward the Kremlin's war against Ukraine and on the Wagner mercenary group.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Since his arrest, Gershkovich has been held in Moscow's Lefortovo prison, a notorious institution dating back to tsarist times. Seen as a symbol of Soviet repression, Lefortovo is where Russia holds most suspects in espionage cases.
Gershkovich is the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War.
The White House and the WSJ have said Gershkovich was working and is a properly accredited journalist in Russia.
Hired by the WSJ shortly before Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Gershkovich had been reporting on Russia for more than five years at the time of his arrest.
Gershkovich, a fluent Russian speaker, is the son of emigres who left the Soviet Union for the United States during the Cold War.