Lynne Tracy, the U.S Ambassador to Russia has demanded that Russia free the Wall Street Journal reporter, Evan Gershkovich, arguing that the Kremlin was using him and other American citizens as pawns.
This came as a Moscow court on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, extended the pre-trial detention of Gershkovich to June 30, 2024.
His detention had already been extended several times but no date has been set for his trial. He has failed in repeated appeals against his detention.
Tuesday’s ruling is the fifth extension of Gershkovich’s detention.
It came ahead of the one-year mark of his detainment and amid efforts by the Biden administration to secure his release.
The Ambassador stated that the latest decision to extend Gershkovich’s pre-trial detention “feels particularly painful, as this week marks one year since Evan was arrested and wrongfully detained.”
“The accusations against Evan are categorically untrue. They are not a different interpretation of circumstances. They are fiction,” she said.
“No justification for Evan’s continued detention, and no explanation as to why Evan doing his job as a journalist constituted a crime.
“Evan’s case is not about evidence, due process, or rule of law. It is about using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends, as the Kremlin is also doing in the case of Paul Whelan.”
Lynne Tracy
Whelan was arrested in Moscow in 2018. He was convicted of spying, a charge the US government says is without merit, and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
In a statement, the Wall Street Journal noted, “It’s a ruling that ensures Evan will sit in a Russian prison well past one year. It was also Evan’s 12th court appearance, baseless proceedings that falsely portray him as something other than what he is—a journalist who was doing his job.”
It added, “He should never have been detained. Journalism is not a crime, and we continue to demand his immediate release.”
Gershkovich was detained in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip at the end of last March. Russia’s FSB Security Service claimed he was collecting state secrets about the country’s military-industrial complex.
He has been held since then in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison.
The Wall Street Journal reporter became the first U.S. journalist to be detained on an allegation of espionage since the end of the Cold War.
The U.S. government says Gershkovich, whom it deems wrongfully detained, has never worked for it and isn’t a spy.
Gershkovich, his paper and the US government all strongly deny the charges, which carry a sentence of up to 20 years.
Russian investigators have not publicly presented evidence for their allegation against Gershkovich.
One Year Without Trial
Friday, March 29, 2024, will mark the first anniversary of Gershkovich’s arrest. However, no trial date has been set.
The Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief, Emma Tucker said in an interview that she believes that the reporter will be eventually freed.
“Evan will be released, but it’s complicated to get there,” she said.
She added, “There are a lot of different people and governments involved. So I think, you know, we just have to be patient, and optimistic.”
Analysts claim that Moscow may be using jailed Americans as bargaining chips in soaring U.S.-Russian tensions over the Kremlin’s military operation in Ukraine.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has said Gershkovich could be released at some point in exchange for a Russian prisoner held abroad, but no such deal has so far materialised.
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