On Friday, a Russian court handed down a 16-year sentence to Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, 32, on espionage charges that have been widely criticized as trumped up. Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 during a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, Russia, and spent over a year in detention before the Russian government produced any evidence against him.
Gershkovich was accused of gathering secret information for the CIA on a plant near Yekaterinburg that produces and repairs Russian military equipment. However, the Russian government has yet to produce any evidence to support these claims, and the U.S. government and the Wall Street Journal have vehemently denied all charges against him.
The secretive trial began in June and was supposed to conclude in August, but the closing arguments were moved forward this week, with the verdict and sentence being handed down in a matter of hours. No observers were allowed in the courtroom during the final week of the trial, and the judge held only two hearings before reaching a verdict.
The Wall Street Journal described the trial as a “shameful sham” and called for Gershkovich’s immediate release. The journalist’s lawyers have 15 days to file an appeal against the conviction, but the guilty verdict and sentence are unlikely to be overturned. The Russian court system has a conviction rate of over 99 percent, and the country rarely agrees to prisoner exchanges until its prisoners have been convicted and sentenced.
Gershkovich is the first American journalist to be sentenced for espionage in Russia since the end of the Cold War over 30 years ago. His lawyers have 15 days to file an appeal against his conviction.
