Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal who was detained in Russia last week, appealed his arrest, according to Russian state news agencies, citing Moscow’s Lefortovo court in the report. theirs on Monday.
“The court has received an appeal from the defense of Gershkovich for his detention,” the court’s press service said, according to the state news agency. duty. A date has yet to be set for the hearing.
Alexei Melnikov, secretary of Moscow’s public oversight committee – a group of civil society members that monitor human rights in pre-trial detention centers – said in a statement. declare on Monday that he visited Mr. Gershkovich, 31, at the prison in Lefortovo.
Mr. Gershkovich seemed cheerful and joking during their conversation, Mr. Melnikov said. He also read Vasily Grossman’s book Life and Fate, set in Stalinist Russia during World War II.
Lefortovo prison was once used by the KGB as a place to hold dissidents with the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was used by the KGB’s successor, the FSB, to isolate opponents of the Kremlin.
Russian authorities arrested Mr. Gershkovich last Thursday in Yekaterinburg, where he made a reporting trip, and accuse him of espionage. Russian authorities have not provided evidence for the allegation, and the Wall Street Journal and US officials have vehemently denied the allegation.
Mr. Gershkovich was transferred to Moscow the same day, where a district court on Thursday formally arrested him and ordered his incarceration until May 29. Follow the precedent of the pasthe will probably be held for much longer than that.
If found guilty — and acquittal in Russian espionage cases is extremely rare — Mr. Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison in a Russian penal colony.
Gershkovich, an American journalist born of Soviet immigrants, moved from New York to Russia in late 2017 to take on his first reporting role, a job at The Moscow Times. In January 2022, he was hired as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal based in Moscow.
Ivan Nechepurenko And Katie Robertson contribution report.
