Ekaterimburgo. American journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia for 15 months on espionage prices that he denies, appeared earlier than a court docket in Yekaterinburg on Wednesday on the primary day of his trial, which is being held behind closed doorways.
Russian justice has by no means detailed its accusations towards the journalist from Wall Avenue Journal.
Gershkovich, 32, was arrested in March 2023 by the Russian safety providers (FSB) and have become the primary Western journalist since Soviet instances to be charged with espionage in Russia.
On Wednesday he appeared in a clear cubicle on the Sverdlovsk regional court docket along with his head shaved and carrying a darkish checkered shirt. She smiled at some reporters and greeted them with a barely audible “whats up.”
The accredited press briefly had entry to the courtroom earlier than the beginning of the trial, which is being held behind closed doorways.
A court docket spokeswoman, Irina Toshcheva, stated the following listening to can be held on August 13 and that the press wouldn’t be allowed to movie the journalist once more earlier than the decision was introduced on an as but undetermined date.
The press service of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) refused to say the place Gershkovich will stay, presently being held in pre-trial detention in Moscow, 1,400 km from Yekaterinburg.
“Farce of a trial”
The White Home denounced a “sham of a trial,” reiterating that Gershkovich “has by no means labored for the” American authorities, that “he’s not a spy” and that “he ought to by no means have been detained.”
Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby indicated that Washington “will proceed to do every thing attainable” to free the journalist.
The US embassy in Moscow stated its representatives had been in a position to attend a part of the listening to on Wednesday.
“Throughout this time period, the Russian authorities haven’t offered any proof to corroborate the accusations,” he denounced, and reiterated that the journalist is getting used as a “bargaining chip” by Russia “to realize political targets.”
Gershkovich, who additionally labored for AFP in Moscow in 2020 and 2021 and faces as much as 20 years in jail, is accused of getting collected confidential data on behalf of the CIA about one of many nation’s major arms producers, Uralvagonzavod.
This firm produces T-90 tanks utilized in Ukraine, the brand new technology Armata tank and freight vehicles, amongst others.
Gershkovich, his newspaper and his family members reject these accusations, as does the USA authorities, which believes that Russia has mounted the case to change the journalist for a number of Russians detained in Western international locations.
“It’s outrageous to see him in court docket for a rigged trial, performed in secret and based mostly on totally fabricated allegations,” Wall Avenue Journal executives Almar Latour and Emma Tucker stated in an announcement Wednesday.
Negotiations for an change
Gershkovich’s household, in the meantime, asserted that “Evan is a journalist and journalism will not be a criminal offense” and requested the USA authorities to do “every thing attainable to convey him residence.”
Though he was held in pre-trial detention in Moscow’s Lefortovo jail, he’s presently on trial in Yekaterinburg within the Urals area, the place he was arrested.
A senior chief of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Ryabkov, revealed final week that Russia has made a proposal to Washington for a prisoner change, with out revealing the small print. In keeping with him, “the ball is within the court docket of the USA.”
This Wednesday Riabkov, quoted by the Interfax company, requested the USA to “significantly” research the “indicators” despatched by Moscow on this difficulty.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that negotiations are underway and hinted that he may ask for the discharge of Vadim Krasikov, sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany for having murdered a former Chechen separatist commander in Berlin in 2019 on Moscow’s orders.
A number of People are being held in Russia, together with Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, arrested final yr for violating the “overseas brokers” regulation, and former Marine Paul Whelan, who’s serving a 16-year jail sentence for espionage, a cost he denies.
Gershkovich, the son of Jews who emigrated from the Soviet Union, grew up in New Jersey and had been working in Russia since 2017 for numerous media retailers.
In among the hearings about his preventive detention he appeared jovial and smiling. In a letter printed in 2023 he stated “to not lose hope.”
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– 2024-07-01 18:17:58
