Photo: NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP / Getty Images
Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, has been sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony by a Russian court on charges of espionage. The U.S. and his employer have denounced these charges as fabricated. Gershkovich was arrested on March 29, 2023, marking the first time since the end of the Cold War that Russia has charged an overseas reporter with spying.
"This disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist," said Dow Jones CEO and Wall Street Journal Publisher Almar Latour and Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Emma Tucker in a joint statement.
Gershkovich was on a reporting assignment in Yekaterinburg when he was arrested. Russian authorities accused him of gathering information on a defense contractor on behalf of the CIA, but have not provided public evidence to support these claims.
The U.S. State Department has declared Gershkovich "wrongfully detained," committing the government to assertively seek his release. The remarkably rapid conclusion of his secretive trial in the country's highly politicized legal system could possibly clear the way for a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.