Evan Gershkovich in court in Yekaterinburg on 26 June before his trial. Photograph: AP
A Russian court has found the American journalist Evan Gershkovich guilty of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in prison, after a trial widely described as a sham.
Earlier on Friday, the prosecution asked for an 18-year jail term for the Wall Street Journal correspondent. Gershkovich, 32, has denied the charges and pleaded not guilty during a closed session of the trial on Friday.
The trial has been concluded with unusual haste, raising hopes of a prisoner swap involving the journalist.
Gershkovich was arrested while reporting in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg last March, becoming the first US journalist since the cold war to be accused of spying in Russia. He has been held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison, but was returned to Yekaterinburg for trial.
Moscow says Gershkovich was collecting secret information about Russia’s military capacities on the orders of the CIA, a claim he, the Wall Street Journal and the US state department have dismissed as ludicrous. He had been granted official accreditation to work as a journalist by the Russian foreign ministry.
“Even as Russia orchestrates its shameful sham trial, we continue to do everything we can to push for Evan’s immediate release,” the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday.
The US embassy in Moscow said: “Regardless of what Russian authorities claim, Evan is a journalist. He did not commit any illegal actions. Russian authorities have been unable to provide evidence that he committed a crime or justification for Evan’s continued detention.”
The trial was held behind closed doors, which is common in espionage cases. Journalists were allowed briefly into the courtroom when the hearings began last month. Gershkovich, with his head shaved under Russian regulations, smiled and nodded from the defendants’ glass box.
The media congregate in court in preparation for the verdict on Evan Gershkovich. Photograph: EPA
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, claimed on Wednesday that Moscow had “irrefutable evidence” Gershkovich was involved in espionage, but gave no details. Russian authorities have made nothing public that would suggest guilt, and many see the arrest as an attempt to use jailed Americans as bargaining chips in an exchange for Russian intelligence operatives and assassins held in western jails.
The speed of the case, with this week’s hearings brought forward by more than a month and the prosecution racing through witness testimony in one afternoon, may indicate that a long-discussed swap deal is close. Russia usually concludes court proceedings in such instances before a swap.
Vladimir Putin, in an interview in February with the US broadcaster Tucker Carlson, said discussions on a swap were under way. “The special services are in contact with one another. They are talking … I believe an agreement can be reached,” the president said.
He hinted that Russia would like to exchange Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, who is serving time in a German jail for assassinating a Chechen exile in Berlin in 2019.
© 2024 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.