In a case that has received widespread criticism, US reporter Evan Gershkovich was refused bail on Tuesday when he appeared before a Moscow court on charges of alleged espionage.
Before the appeal hearing—the first partially open hearing against his pretrial detention—started, Gershkovich, dressed in trousers and a blue checkered shirt, crossed his arms and grinned.
The judge denied his request for bail, declaring that his detention will “remain in place, without any changes.”
“All understood. Thank you very much,” Gershkovich was heard telling the judge from inside the defendant’s glass cage.
Handcuff marks were visible on his hands.
His publication, the Wall Street Journal, said “while we expected this development, it is nonetheless disappointing.”
“He has a fighting spirit. He’s working out and he knows that people are supporting him,” Maria Korchagina, one of his lawyers, told AFP after the hearing.
In English, she added that Gershkovich “would like to prove that he is not guilty, he would like to prove there is a place for freedom of journalism” to a group of reporters.
Tatyana Nozhkina, another of his attorneys, claimed that Gershkovich read a lot while he was incarcerated and was now reading “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy.
The attorneys said that they had offered to post a bond of 50 million rubles ($613,000) and asked for his release from custody under home arrest.
‘Good health’
Lynne Tracy, the US ambassador to Moscow, was also present in the courtroom, but she and the journalists were hustled out for the majority of the session.
The Wall Street Journal reporter, a US-born descendant of Soviet Jewish emigrants, was detained by the Russian security service, FSB, last month while on assignment in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Urals.
The 31-year-old allegedly attempted to collect sensitive defense information for the US government, but the specifics of the case are being kept strictly confidential, according to the FSB.
Gershkovich has firmly rejected the charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Any trial could be months away.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Gershkovich, a former employee of AFP, is the first foreign journalist to be detained on suspicion of spying.
Gershkovich has only once been in court since his March 29 arrest: on March 30 for a closed custody hearing.
He was remanded in detention until May 29 and is currently being held at the Lefortovo prison in Moscow, which has previously housed a number of well-known inmates who have been charged with treason and espionage.
“He is in good health and remains strong,” US ambassador Tracy was quoted by the US embassy as saying after visiting him on Monday.
‘Not losing hope’
In his first contact with the outside world, Gershkovich wrote a handwritten letter to his parents in Russian. “I am not losing hope,” it read.
His mother Ella Milman said he “felt it was his duty to report” from Russia.
“He loves Russian people,” she said in a video interview with the Wall Street Journal.
US President Joe Biden has called his imprisonment “totally illegal”.
More than three dozen news organisations have also signed a letter to the Russian ambassador in the United States, denouncing “unfounded espionage charges”.
“Gershkovich’s unwarranted and unjust arrest is a significant escalation in your government’s anti-press actions,” the letter released by the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
“Gershkovich is a journalist, not a spy, and should be released immediately and without conditions,” it added.
The arrest has raised speculation that Russia may want a prisoner swap like the one last year in which Moscow released US basketball star Brittney Griner, who had been arrested over traces of cannabis found in her possession.
She was exchanged for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer imprisoned in the United States.
Russia has increased its campaign on domestic critics since sending soldiers to Ukraine in February, with nearly all of the Kremlin’s main foes either in exile or behind prison.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is currently serving a nine-year prison term, has a fresh criminal case initiated against him in Moscow, according to his spokeswoman.
It was the Kremlin critic’s eighth case, according to Kira Yarmysh, who already faced up to 35 years in prison.
Tuesday saw additional attempts by Russian lawmakers to toughen laws used to suppress critics, including the introduction of a potential life sentence for treason.