The American journalist Evan Gershkovich, from the Wall Street Journal, arrested in March in Russia accused of “espionage”, appealed the three-month extension of his preventive detention issued on Thursday by the Russian Justice, the local press reported today.
The journalist’s defense, which rejects the accusations, yesterday appealed the decision of the Moscow district judge of Lefortovo to extend his detention until November 30, pending a date for his trial, argued the municipal court and the agency replied. from AFP news.
The prolongation of his detention was almost certain, since the Russian Justice rarely releases during its process people accused of crimes considered serious.
This is the second time that the court has extended the US correspondent’s detention and the defense appeals, after extending it until August 30 at the end of May and a court rejecting a request to release him in mid-July.
Gershkovich, 31, a Wall Street Journal journalist who had previously worked for the AFP news agency, was arrested on March 29 during a business trip to the Urals and has since been held in Lefortovo prison in the Russian capital.
The Russian Security Service (FSB) announced, at that time, that it had arrested him in the city of Yekaterinburg for spying on behalf of the US government.
According to the FSB, the man, who was working in Russia as a correspondent, was gathering secret information about a company that manufactures heavy weapons.
The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that Gershkovich’s mission in Yekaterinburg was not related to journalism, and warned that it was not the first time that representatives of other countries used press accreditation as a “cover”.
The espionage charges carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison, although so far Russia has not publicly provided any evidence of its accusations and the process is being carried out secretly.
After learning of the court ruling, the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal indignantly demanded the immediate release of its reporter.
“The unfounded accusations against him are categorically false and we continue to press for his immediate release. Journalism is not a crime,” the US media stressed at the time.
Gershkovich is the first Western journalist to be arrested and accused of espionage by Russia since the end of the Soviet era in the early 1990s, amid a sharp deterioration in relations between the two parties after the outbreak of the war with Ukraine 18 years ago. months.
Source: Ambito
