A court in Russia on May 31 extended the pretrial detention of Alsu Kurmasheva, a Prague-based journalist with RFE/RL who holds dual U.S. and Russian citizenship, until August 5.
The Sovetsky district court of Kazan also rejected another request by Kurmasheva's lawyers to have her detention switched to house arrest.
While deliberations were held behind closed doors, representatives from the Australian and Czech embassies, along with reporters, were allowed into the courtroom for other parts of the hearing.
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Russian Court Again Extends Detention Of RFE/RL Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva
"The injustices multiply every day in this needless, cruel prosecution. Alsu's fundamental rights as an American citizen are being denied by Russian authorities who have now imprisoned her for 227 days," RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said in a statement after the decision.
"In that time, Alsu has not even had a single phone call with her loving children and husband; she's been denied U.S. consular access as well as basic, adequate levels of health care. Alsu should be home in Prague with her daughters helping them study for final exams -- not locked up in a Russian prison on baseless charges."
Before the decision was handed down, Kurmasheva, who has been held in detention since October 18, 2023, showed reporters children's drawings she has received.
"Parents independently sent me drawings by their children.... They asked them to draw freedom, happiness, joy, and so the children drew such wonderful drawings. Considering that this is probably the only grass and trees I will see this summer, this is priceless," Kurmasheva told spectators from behind the glass-walled defendant's box in the courtroom.
She added that she has been feeling steadily worse and needs surgery to correct issues she's suffering from.
SEE ALSO: Biden Calls For Release Of Imprisoned Journalists, Including RFE/RL's KurmashevaKurmasheva, 47, was arrested in Kazan last October and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent under a punitive Russian law that targets journalists, civil society activists, and others. She’s also been charged with spreading falsehoods about the Russian military and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
RFE/RL and the U.S. government say the charges are reprisals for her work as a journalist for RFE/RL in Prague. She had traveled to Russia to visit and care for her mother and was initially detained while waiting for her return flight on June 2 at Kazan airport, where her U.S. and Russian passports were confiscated.
Many critics and rights group say the so-called foreign agent law is used by the Kremlin to crack down on any dissent.
Moscow also has been accused of detaining Americans to use as bargaining chips to exchange for Russians jailed in the United States.
In February, 23 countries nominated Kurmasheva for the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano 2024 World Press Freedom Prize.
The prize, created in 1997, is an annual award that honors a person or a group of people who make an "outstanding" contribution to the defense and promotion of press freedom across the globe despite the "danger and persecution" they face.
RFE/RL's jailed journalists (left to right): Alsu Kurmasheva, Ihar Losik, Andrey Kuznechyk, and Vladyslav Yesypenko
Kurmasheva is one of four RFE/RL journalists -- Andrey Kuznechyk, Ihar Losik, and Vladyslav Yesypenko are the other three -- currently imprisoned on charges related to their work. Rights groups and RFE/RL have called repeatedly for the release of all four, saying they have been wrongly detained.
Losik is a blogger and contributor for RFE/RL’s Belarus Service who was convicted in December 2021 on several charges including the “organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order” and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Kuznechyk, a web editor for RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, was sentenced in June 2022 to six years in prison following a trial that lasted no more than a few hours. He was convicted of “creating or participating in an extremist organization.”
Yesypenko, a dual Ukrainian-Russian citizen who contributed to Crimea.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, was sentenced in February 2022 to six years in prison by a Russian judge in occupied Crimea after a closed-door trial. He was convicted of “possession and transport of explosives,” a charge he steadfastly denies.