| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Russia extends detention of US reporter Evan Gershkovich after a year in jail |
| 2024-03-27 |
| [IsraelTimes] 32-year-old US citizen is being held at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, notorious for its harsh conditions; is to be kept in custody until June 30 A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Wall Street Journal news hound Evan Gershkovich held in jail on espionage charges until at least late June, court officials said. The 32-year-old US citizen was arrested in late March 2023 while on a reporting trip and has spent a year behind bars. His arrest was extended until June 30. Photos from the courtroom released by court officials showed Gershkovich, clad in a black checkered shirt, smiling from the glass defendant’s box. Gershkovich and his employer have denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! and the US government has declared him to be wrongfully detained. His arrest in the city of Yekaterinburg rattled journalists in Russia, where authorities have not detailed what if any, evidence they have to support the espionage charges. Gershkovich is being held at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, which is notorious for its harsh conditions. US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy attended the court hearing on Tuesday and reiterated that "the accusations against Evan are categorically untrue." "They are not a different interpretation of circumstances. They are fiction," Tracy told news hounds outside of the courthouse. "No justification for Evan’s continued detention, and no explanation as to why Evan doing his job as a journalist constituted a crime. Evan’s case is not about evidence, due process or rule of law. It is about using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends." Analysts have pointed out that Moscow may be using jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! Americans as bargaining chips in soaring US-Russian tensions over the Kremlin’s military operation in Ukraine. At least two US citizens arrested in Russia in recent years — including WNBA star Brittney Griner — have been exchanged for Russians jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! in the US. Gershkovich is the first American news hound to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for US News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB. Daniloff was released without charge 20 days later in a swap for an employee of the Soviet Union’s UN mission who was arrested by the FBI, also on spying charges. Related: Evan Gershkovich: 2023-09-15 Russia orders expulsion of two US embassy staff for links to ‘spy' Evan Gershkovich: 2023-04-19 United States accuses three Russians of campaigning in the interests of Russia Evan Gershkovich: 2023-04-11 WSJ Reporter still held in Lefortovo Prison- USA demanding release |
| Posted by:trailing wife |