The Wall Street Journal condemns the “shameful and false conviction” and says that “journalism is not a crime.”
A Russian court sentenced American journalist Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison after convicting him of espionage in a closed-door trial, according to state media.
The 32-year-old correspondent for The Wall Street Journal pleaded not guilty, and his employer and the United States denounced the charges as fabricated.
Gershkovich was sentenced to “punishment in the form of imprisonment for a period of 16 years in a strict regime colony,” judge Andrei Mineyev said, announcing the verdict on Friday while the reporter was in a glass cage, according to the video of the hearing released. by the court.
When asked by the judge if he had any doubts, he replied “No” in Russian.
“This shameful and false conviction comes after Evan spent 478 days in prison, unjustly detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist,” said Almar Latour, chief executive of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal and the paper’s editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, in a statement.
Mineyev said the time Gershkovich has already served since his arrest nearly 16 months ago would count toward the sentence. The judge also ordered the destruction of the reporter’s cell phone and notebook.
The defense has 15 days to appeal.
The journalist was arrested on March 29, 2023, during a reporting trip to the city of Yekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountains.
He was accused by prosecutors of collecting secret information about Uralvagonzavod, a factory that makes tanks for Russia’s war in Ukraine, on orders from the CIA.
Authorities have not provided public evidence of the accusations against him, with the Kremlin saying only that he was caught “red-handed” spying on a tank factory in the Urals and that he worked for the CIA.
He is the first Western journalist to be arrested on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia.
Gerschkovich, his newspaper and the US government say he was just doing his job, with accreditation from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The prosecution had previously asked the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg for an 18-year sentence.
Closed trials are standard in Russia for treason or espionage cases involving confidential material. Gershkovich’s trial has progressed quickly since the first hearing in late June.
“We will continue to do everything we can to push for Evan’s release and support his family,” his employer’s statement said. “Journalism is not a crime and we will not rest until he is released. This must end now.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
