WSJ reporter Ivan Gershkovich was charged by the US with espionage by a Russian court.

CNN
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Ivan GershkovichThe first American journalist to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War has been convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison by a Russian court, in a case condemned by the US government, his newspaper and supporters. as a fake.

The court in Yekaterinburg announced the guilty verdict and sentence shortly after 3 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET) on Friday.

The court heard closing arguments and Gershkovich, 32, a Wall Street Journal reporter, delivered his closing remarks behind closed doors Friday morning.

The swift decision in the case comes just weeks after Gershkovich First appeared in a glass cage His head was recently shaved for the start of his trial on June 26. That day, Gershkovich stood with his arms crossed, occasionally smiling and waving to a crowd of reporters.

The pace of the trial has raised questions about whether the Kremlin intends to use him as part of a prisoner exchange deal with the United States, which spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on when asked about them on a conference call Friday ahead of the ruling. Notice

In June, Moscow reaffirmed that talks were underway regarding a possible prisoner exchange deal for Gershkovich, but Peskov repeatedly insisted that those conversations should be carried out in “absolute silence” to prevent complications.

Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while reporting for the WSJ during a trip to Yekaterinburg and later charged with spying for the CIA. Russian officials have not provided any public evidence to support their claims.

Within two weeks of his arrest in March 2023, the US State Department called for his immediate release, citing wrongful detention.

Following Friday’s sentencing, Gershkovich’s boss said: “This humiliating, bogus sentence comes after Ivan spent 478 days in prison, falsely detained, separated from his family and friends and prevented from reporting.

“We will continue to do everything we can to secure Evan’s release and support his family,” continued the statement from Dow Jones CEO and Wall Street Journal Publisher Almer Latour and Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker.

“Journalism is not a crime and we will not rest until he is freed. This must end now,” it added.

The verdict has not yet taken effect, and an appeal against the sentence can be filed within 15 days, Judge Andrey Minev said as he delivered his ruling. The court ordered Gershkovich to pay 6,708 rubles ($77) in legal costs and to destroy some of his personal belongings, including an iPhone and notebook.

According to the judge, the time Gershkovich has already spent in custody since last March will count toward his sentence.

Following his arrest, Gershkovich was held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison, spending every hour of the day in a small cell before being transferred to Yekaterinburg in the Urals, more than 1,100 miles from the capital. He passed the time by writing letters to his friends and family, and his parents told the WSJ that he was only allowed to walk for an hour a day.

Gershkovich, the US government and the WSJ have vehemently denied the allegations against him.

US and Western officials have accused Russia of using Gershkovich and other jailed foreigners as bargaining chips for possible prisoner exchanges.

High quality transfer In 2022, American basketball star Brittney Griner was transferred to arms dealer Victor Bott. But Russia refused It seeks a former colonel from Russia’s domestic spy agency to free another imprisoned American citizen, Paul Whelan.

In an interview with right-wing American media personality Tucker Carlson in February, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that “a deal could be reached” with the United States to release Gershkovich and a Russian national charged with an assassination. in Berlin in 2019.

The trial of Gershkovich, the American-born son of Soviet-era immigrants to America, highlights the extent to which Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has strained relations between Moscow and Washington.

Russian prosecutors said in their indictment that Gershkovich had been “collecting classified information” about the Russian tank factory “under the instructions of the CIA” and “using severe conspiratorial methods.”

This story has been updated.