A Russian court said on Monday the espionage trial of jailed American journalist Evan Gershkovich will begin next week and will be held behind closed doors.
The first hearing is scheduled for June 26, nearly 15 months after Gershkovich was detained by Russian security agents in Yekaterinburg, about 900 miles east of Moscow. Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, is likely to be transferred back to Yekaterinburg for trial after spending more than a year in a high-security prison in Moscow.
Gershkovic worked as a journalist for several publications in Russia for more than five years before his arrest, and his employers and the U.S. government have denied the charges against him. Designate Mr. Gershkovich As ‘Wrongly detained’ This effectively forces it to work towards securing its safe release.
The announcement of the trial date marks an important step in Gershkevich’s case, which is running in parallel with negotiations between Russian and U.S. security services on a possible swap.
Russian authorities have said they may be willing to swap prisoners with Gershkovich, but only if there is a verdict in his case. Espionage trials in Russia typically take about four months but can take up to a year, according to lawyers who have handled espionage cases.
Last week, Russian prosecutors said they had Finalizing the espionage indictment They accused Gershkovich of “collecting secret information about a factory producing tanks and other weapons in the Sverdlovsk region” by “using a carefully planned conspiracy” “at the direction of the CIA”.
The prosecutor’s statement was the first time a Russian government representative had disclosed details of the charges against Gershkovich. But the statement lacked evidence to support the allegations.
Because the trial is being held behind closed doors, it is unlikely to shed any further light on his case.
According to the court statement, the trial will be heard by Andrei N. Mineev, a judge of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court of Yekaterinburg. In an interview with a Russian news website in 2021, Mineev said that he Only four people were acquitted Throughout his decades-long career, Gershkovic has been a suspect and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The Wall Street Journal published a statement last week predicting that this would be a “sham trial.”
Gershkovic is one of several Americans detained in Russia in recent years, and his case has sparked concerns that the Kremlin is trying to use U.S. citizens as leverage in exchange for Russians held in the West.
Other Americans held in Russian custody include Paul Whelana U.S. Marine Corps veteran; Arsu Kurmashevaeditor of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Mark Fogelis an American teacher at the British and American School in Moscow who was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2022 for drug smuggling. Last week, a Russian court Sentencing Yuri Malev, a Russian and American citizen, was sentenced to three and a half years in exile for criticizing Russia, its leadership and its war in Ukraine on social media.
