A Russian court sentenced US reporter Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison for “espionage” on Friday, following just over three weeks of secretive court hearings blasted by Washington as a charade.
Russia has a policy of not swapping convicts overseas until they have previously been convicted, which might open the door for the 32-year-old to be traded in a bargain.
He was sentenced to “punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 16 years in a strict regime colony,” Judge Andrei Mineyev announced.
Gershkovich did not appear to react to the sentence, standing in a glass defendants’ cage wearing black jeans and a T-shirt. As he was brought away, he waved at his fellow journalists.
The Wall Street Journal correspondent, who pled not guilty, was held in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in March 2023, becoming the first journalist in Russia to be charged with spying since the Cold War.
He has been in custody for nearly 16 months on charges that the US government and his business feel are false.
“This disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, and 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.
Reporters Without Borders criticized the sentence as “outrageous” and demanded Gershkovich’s immediate release.
Washington believes he is being held as a bargaining chip to secure the release of Russians imprisoned elsewhere.
His trial has progressed quickly from the initial hearing in late June, with the prosecution and defense teams delivering their closing arguments on Friday.
Other similar cases in Russia have progressed far more slowly, with several weeks or even months between sessions.
When questioned Friday, the Kremlin refused to speculate on the possibility of a prisoner swap.
Talks ongoing
The Kremlin has presented no public evidence for the spying charges against Gershkovich, claiming simply that he was caught “red-handed” spying on a tank plant in the Urals region while working for the CIA.
According to the prosecution, Gershkovich took “careful measures of secrecy” on Friday.
Tensions between the countries are exceedingly high due to Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine.
Moscow and Washington have both stated that they are open to exchanging the reporter in a deal, but neither has offered any indication of when this may occur.
Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that conversations between US and Russian secret services about possible prisoner exchanges were ongoing, but did not name any specific individuals.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has hinted that he wants Vadim Krasikov, a Russian who was convicted in Germany of killing a Chechen separatist commander, released. German judges concluded that the assassination was carried out by Russian officials.
Other US people detained in Russia include reporter Alsu Kurmasheva and ballerina Ksenia Karelina, both dual US-Russian citizens, as well as former US marine Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year term for spying.
‘Arbitrary’ detention
Gershkovich, the US-born son of Soviet emigrants raised in New Jersey, had been reporting from Russia since 2017, and he continued to do so following Russia’s incursion in Ukraine.
In Moscow’s remote Lefortovo prison, he wrote handwritten letters to friends and family, revealing that he had not given up hope in his circumstances.
On June 26, at his first trial hearing, he spoke briefly to greet journalists and appeared bright and cheery, showing that his head had been completely shaved, just like on Friday.
A United Nations working group said this month that Gershkovich’s incarceration on spying charges was “arbitrary” and demanded his immediate release.
“Evan was never employed by the United States government. “Evan is not a spy,” US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby stated last month.
The White House has warned US citizens still in Russia to “depart immediately” owing to the possibility of being wrongfully arrested.