Lefortovsky court extended the arrest of WSJ journalist Evan Hershkovych
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The Lefortovsky Court of Moscow extended the arrest of Evan Hershkovich, a journalist of the American edition of The Wall Street Journal, until August 30. The meeting was held in closed session and lasted less than an hour. The term of Hershkovich’s arrest expired on May 29.
As reported by the “Dozhd” TV channel, the journalist’s parents Ella Milman and Mikhail Hershkovich came to the court, they came from the USA.
Evan Hershkovich was detained on March 29 in Yekaterinburg. The court charged him with espionage and placed him under arrest for two months. The Russian investigation claims that Hershkovich collected secret information on one of the enterprises of the military-industrial complex at the behest of the United States. The details of the accusation are not provided.
Hershkovich pleaded not guilty. The editors of The Wall Street Journal categorically rejected the accusations of espionage and stated that Hershkovich was doing his job. In particular, he asked residents of Yekaterinburg about their reaction to the losses incurred by PMC “Wagner” in Ukraine.
The US State Department recognized journalist Evan Hershkovich as “unlawfully detained” by Russia. This status is equivalent to the status of a hostage and allows Washington to use additional mechanisms to achieve his release – in particular, to negotiate the exchange of an American citizen.
On charges of espionage, Hershkovich may face up to 20 years in prison in Russia.
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