Russia convicts US journalist of spying in a trial widely seen as politically motivated

YEKATERINBURG, Russia (AP) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was convicted Friday of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in a maximum-security prison on charges that his employer and the U.S. government have rejected as fabricated.

The swift conclusion of the secretive trial in Russia’s highly politicized legal system could potentially clear the way for a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.

Gershkovich, his head shaved and looking thin in a dark T-shirt, was calm as he stood in a glass defendants’ cage in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court. He listened impassively to the verdict but gave an occasional smile. When Judge Andrei Mineyev asked him if he had any questions about the verdict, he replied “No, your honor.”

After Mineyev read the verdict, someone in the courtroom shouted, “Evan, we love you!”

Closing arguments took place behind closed doors where Gershkovich did not admit any guilt, according to the court’s press service. Prosecutors requested an 18-year sentence, but the judge opted for a shorter term.

U.S. President Joe Biden said after the conviction that Gershkovich “was targeted by the Russian government because he is a journalist and an American.”

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“We are pushing hard for Evan’s release and will continue to do so,” he said in a statement. “As I have long said and as the U.N. also concluded, there is no question that Russia is wrongfully detaining Evan. Journalism is not a crime.”

Almar Latour, CEO of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and Editor in Chief Emma Tucker called it a “disgraceful, sham conviction.”

“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,” they said in a statement. “We will continue to do everything possible to press for Evan’s release and to support his family. Journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until he’s released. This must end now.”

Latour later told The Associated Press in an interview it was “deeply disconcerting” to see Gershkovich in a defendants’ cage with a shaved head “and the more emaciated look,” but he added: “We do believe that he’s otherwise healthy.”

Commenting on the unusually swift trial, he said, “It just goes to show that in an autocracy and a regime like this, trials can move at any speed, with an invisible hand deciding that.” It further underscores “the fake nature of these charges,” he added.

Gershkovich, 32, was arrested March 29, 2023, while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. Authorities claimed, without offering any evidence, that he was gathering secret information for the U.S.

He has been behind bars since his arrest, time that will be counted as part of his sentence. Most of that was in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison — a czarist-era lockup used during Josef Stalin’s purges, when executions were carried out in its basement. He was transferred to Yekaterinburg for the trial.

Gershkovich was the first U.S. journalist arrested on espionage charges since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986, at the height of the Cold War. Foreign journalists in Russia were shocked by Gershkovich’s arrest, even though the country has enacted increasingly repressive laws on freedom of speech after sending troops into Ukraine.

Unlike the trial’s opening June 26 in Yekaterinburg and previous hearings in Moscow where reporters could see Gershkovich briefly before proceedings began, there was no access to the courtroom Thursday when the trial resumed. Media were allowed in Friday for the verdict. Espionage and treason cases are typically shrouded in secrecy.

Russian courts convict more than 99% of defendants, and prosecutors can appeal sentences that they regard as too lenient.

The U.S. State Department has declared Gershkovich “wrongfully detained,” committing it to assertively seek his release.

Asked Friday about a possible prisoner swap involving Gershkovich, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow and Washington’s “special services” are discussing an exchange. Russia has previously signaled a possible swap, but said a verdict must come first. Even after a verdict, a deal could take months or years.

U.S. officials offered to swap Gershkovich last year but it was rejected by Russia, and they have not made public any possible deals since then.

State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel on Thursday declined to discuss negotiations about an exchange.

President Vladimir Putin hinted earlier this year he would be open to swapping Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing of a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent.

Speaking to reporters after the verdict, prosecutor Mikael Ozdoyev said Gershkovich was accused of gathering secret information about production and repair of military equipment at Uralvagonzavod, an industrial plant about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Yekaterinburg that manufactures tanks. Ozdoyev repeated the claim that Gershkovich was acting on instructions from the CIA.

U.S. officials have dismissed this as bogus. “Evan has never been employed by the United States government. Evan is not a spy,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said last month.

Russia’s interpretation of what constitutes high crimes like espionage and treason is broad, with authorities often going after people who share publicly available information with foreigners and accusing them of divulging state secrets.

U.N. human rights experts said this month that Russia violated international law by jailing Gershkovich and should release him immediately.

Arrests of Americans are increasingly common in Russia, with nine U.S. citizens known to be detained there as tensions between the two countries have escalated over fighting in Ukraine.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Moscow of treating “human beings as bargaining chips.” She singled out Gershkovich and ex-Marine Paul Whelan, 53, a corporate security director from Michigan, who is serving a 16-year sentence after being convicted on spying charges that he and the U.S. denied.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that when it comes to Gershkovich, Whelan and other Americans wrongfully detained in Russia and elsewhere, we’re working “quite literally every day.”

“We’re working it as we speak, and we’re not going to stop until we get Evan home, Paul home, till we get others home,” Blinken said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

Since sending troops to Ukraine, Russian authorities have detained several U.S. nationals and other Westerners.

In his statement, Biden said that “since the very first day of my administration, I have had no higher priority than seeking the release and safe return of Evan, Paul Whelan and all Americans wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad.”

The son of Soviet emigres who settled in New Jersey, Gershkovich was fluent in Russian and moved to the country in 2017 to work for The Moscow Times newspaper before being hired by the Journal in 2022.

Gershkovich had over a dozen closed hearings on extending his pretrial detention or appeals for his release. He was brought to the courthouse in handcuffs and appeared smiling for the many cameras before the hearings began.

These gave his family, friends and U.S. officials a glimpse of him, and it was a break from his otherwise monotonous prison routine. But his mother, Ella Milman, said they also were a painful reminder that “he is not with us.”

Friends say that while he was in Lefortovo, Gershkovich was not allowed phone calls and was allowed out of his cell for only an hour a day to exercise. He usually spent the rest of his time reading books in English and Russian and writing letters to friends and family.

He relied on his sense of humor to get through the days, according to those close to him.

As he marked his second year in captivity in March, Milman said he was “telling people not to freak out,” but she admitted the strain for friends and family was “taking a toll.”