THE wall street journal expresses its deep disappointment after the decision of a Moscow court, Thursday August 24, to extend by three months the provisional detention of its journalist arrested last March in the country. Evan Gershkovich will remain in jail until at least November 30, pending trial for espionage.
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The decision was expected. Evan Gershkovich’s pretrial detention has been extended twice, and it could be extended even longer, as the journalist from the wall street journal still does not know the date of his trial.
The 31-year-old reporter was arrested in late March in Yekaterinburg and incarcerated in a Moscow prison. He is accused of espionage, a crime punishable by 20 years in prison in Russia. The journalist rejects these accusations as a whole, which have not been publicly substantiated by the Russians.
Evan Gershkovich is supported by his employer, the wall street journal, but also by the American administration. Joe Biden promised last month to do everything for his release, considering “ seriously a prisoner exchange with Moscow.
In a statement, the wall street journal expresses his disappointment with this new extension of Evan Gershkovich’s detention: ” We are very disappointed that he is arbitrarily and wrongly detained for doing his job as a journalist. The baseless accusations against him are categorically false and we continue to advocate for his immediate release. Journalism is not a crime. »
The imprisonment of a foreign journalist duly accredited by the Russian authorities is unprecedented since the end of the Cold War. It comes at a time of great tension between the United States and Russia, particularly around the war in Ukraine.
A US State Department spokesperson called on Russia to ” immediately release Evan and release the wrongfully detained US citizen Paul Whelan “, named after a former soldier convicted of espionage and sentenced, in June 2020, to sixteen years in prison.