A Russian court on Friday sentenced US reporter Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison for “espionage,” a verdict slammed as “despicable,” “disgraceful” and a “sham” by Western governments and his employer.
Gershkovich was sentenced after just three court sessions in a secretive closed-door trial in Yekaterinburg, the city where he was arrested while on a reporting trip in March last year.
After the sentencing, US President Joe Biden said that Gershkovich was “targeted by the Russian government because he is a journalist and an American.”
Photo: AP
“We are pushing hard for Evan’s release and will continue to do so,” he added in a written statement published by the White House.
Russia has previously said its policy is not to trade people before they have been convicted, suggesting Friday’s sentence could pave the way for the 32-year-old journalist to be swapped in a deal.
In court on Friday, Gershkovich did not appear to react to the sentencing, standing in a glass defendants’ cage. He waved to his journalist colleagues as he was led away.
Judge Andrei Mineyev said Gershkovich would be sent to a “strict regime colony” — a Russian prison camp notorious for harsh conditions and strict rules.
The Wall Street Journal correspondent, who pleaded not guilty, became the first journalist in Russia to be charged with spying since the Cold War when he was detained last year.
“This disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist,” the Journal’s publisher Almar Latour and editor-in-chief Emma Tucker said in a statement.
Washington believes he is being held as a bargaining chip to secure the release of Russians convicted abroad.
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