Evan Gershkovich Jailed: A Russian court sentenced American journalist Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in a maximum-security prison on Friday after he was found guilty of espionage in a case that his employer, The Wall Street Journal, and the US government called a fraud.
Gershkovich, 32, denied any involvement in the case that went to trial last month in Yekaterinburg, more than a year after being jailed there on espionage accusations.
Evan Gershkovich Jailed For 16 Years.
In a telephone conversation with NBC News, the Sverdlovsk Region Court’s press department said that during closing arguments, the state prosecutor recommended that Gershkovich be sentenced to 18 years in jail.
In a second release, the court said that Gershkovich had been found guilty of gathering classified information about the operations of a defense firm for the manufacture and maintenance of military equipment on orders from US intelligence agencies.
Andrei Mineyev, a judge of the Sverdlovsk Region Court, remanded Gershkovich in detention until his sentence could be lawfully executed. The journalist is also obliged to pay the legal expenses, which amount to little more than $75.
His defense team has 15 days to appeal the sentence.
Russia has never disclosed any convincing proof backing its allegations against Gershkovich.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Jay Conti, executive vice president and general counsel at Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, called the trial a “sham” based on “bogus charges that are completely trumped up.”
The US government has likewise opposed the accusations against Gershkovich and believes he was unlawfully jailed.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly urged his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to free the journalist, who was detained on a reporting trip.
In the weeks after Gershkovich’s detention, Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a press conference that the United States would do “everything in its power” to return the journalist home.
Gershkovich’s arrest also became a topic of dispute in the US presidential campaign, with Republican contender Donald Trump stating in May that if won, he might persuade Putin to release Gershkovich. His remarks attracted sharp criticism from Biden’s team.
Prior to Friday’s conviction and punishment, Russia has repeatedly prolonged Gershkovich’s detention, which has been criticized by journalists and government officials throughout the West as typical of Putin’s assault on free expression in Russia and abroad.
Putin has already indicated that he thinks a deal can be reached to liberate Gershkovich.
According to individuals who spoke with NBC News in February, a hypothetical trade may have resulted in the release of Gershkovich, former Marine Paul Whelan, and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Five sources told NBC News that the transfer was not expected when Navalny died in an Arctic prison facility that month.
Gershkovich has already been in court in Moscow and Yekaterinburg, where he has frequently grinned and seemed cheerful. However, his incarceration has impacted on his family.
“It has been hard,” his father, Mikhail Gershkovich, told NBC News in March, on the anniversary of his incarceration. “He spent all four seasons there.” He spent his birthday and all other holidays. “We need him home as soon as possible.”
During the Cold War, his parents fled the Soviet Union and relocated to the United States. Gershkovich and his elder sister were up speaking Russian at home, and the family called him “Vanya,” which is a diminutive of his Russian name, Ivan.
His fascination with Russia drove his choice to go there in 2017 to work as a journalist.
The family said that everything changed when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Gershkovich, like many other foreign reporters concerned about Russia’s growing hold on press freedom, left the country, but he returned on a frequent basis for reporting.