Evan Hershkovich, according to the decision of the Moscow City Court, will remain in pre-trial detention center
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Accused of espionage in Russia, correspondent of the Moscow bureau of The Wall Street Journal, American journalist Evan Hershkovich will remain in custody. Such a decision was taken on December 14 by the Moscow City Court, which dismissed the defense’s appeal against the restraining order.
The decision means that Evan Hershkovich will be in pre-trial detention until January 30 of the future year.
The court session was held behind closed doors, since the case materials contain the word “secret”.
On March 29, the Center for Public Relations of the FSB of Russia reported on the detention of Evan Hershkovich. The journalist faces 10 to 20 years in prison. According to the intelligence service, the journalist, “acting at the behest of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.” As the FSB noted, the correspondent was detained in Yekaterinburg “while trying to obtain secret information.”
On Wednesday, December 13, the national security adviser to the US president, Jake Sullivan, called the release of The Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Hershkovich, detained by the Russian authorities, a priority task for President Joe Biden. “We won’t rest until we bring the ego home,” Sullivan said. He noted that the White House is cooperating with the Russian side on the issue of the journalist’s release.
Earlier this month, the official representative of the State Department, Matthew Miller, reported that Russia rejected a new proposal to release Hershkovich and Paul Whelan, two Americans whom the US government considers to be illegally detained by the Russian authorities, the Voice of America writes.
- Evan Hershkovich and his employer, The Wall Street Journal, categorically deny the charges brought against him. The publication repeatedly demanded the immediate release of the journalist. The White House called the charges “ridiculous,” and President Biden described the journalist’s detention as “absolutely illegal.”
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