Friday, June 14, 2024 - American journalist Evan Gershkovich will go on trial in Russia on espionage charges, Russian prosecutors have said.
The Russian government accused the Wall
Street Journal (WSJ) reporter of collecting "secret information" from
a Russian tank factory on behalf of the CIA.
The prosecutors say he will stand trial in
a court in Yekaterinburg - the city in the Urals he was arrested in last March
while covering the war in Ukraine.
Gershkovich, 32, denies the charges, while
the WSJ dismissed the forthcoming trial as a "sham". The US considers
the reporter to be "wrongfully detained".
Russian prosecutors said on Thursday, June 13 that an investigation had
established that the reporter had collected "secret information"
about the "production and repair of military equipment" from a
Russian tank factory.
In a statement, they accused him of
carrying "out the illegal actions using painstaking conspiratorial
methods".
This, prosecutors said, was "on the
instructions of the CIA".
His arrest marked the first time Russia had accused a US journalist of
espionage since the Soviet era.
Since his arrest, Gershkovich has remained
in pre-trial detention in Moscow, 1000 miles (1609km) from Yekaterinburg.He has
spent over a year behind bars and if found guilty faces up to 20 years in
prison.
Earlier this year, in an interview with
Tucker Carlson, President Vladimir Putin said he believed a deal could be
reached to free Mr Gershkovich.
Putin said it relied upon "our
partners [taking] reciprocal steps", and hinted at the identity of a
person Russia would accept in a prisoner exchange.
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