The court in Moscow extended the arrest of Evan Hershkovich until January 30, 2024

The Lefortovsky District Court of Moscow extended for two months, until January 30, 2024, the arrest of Evan Hershkovich, a journalist of the American edition of The Wall Street Journal, who is in pretrial detention on charges of espionage. This was reported by the press service of the Moscow Courts of General Jurisdiction.

In total, Hershkovich will spend 10 months in the “Lefortovo” pre-trial detention center.

• Evan Hershkovich was detained on March 29 in Yekaterinburg, the next day the court in Moscow sent him under arrest. The FSB claims that Hershkovich was collecting secret information on one of the enterprises of the military-industrial complex at the behest of the United States.
• Hershkovich pleaded not guilty. The editors of The Wall Street Journal stated that the journalist was doing his job. In particular, he asked residents of Yekaterinburg about their reactions to the losses incurred by PMC “Wagner” in Ukraine.
• The US State Department declared Evan Hershkovich “unlawfully detained” by Russia. This status is equivalent to the status of a hostage and allows Washington to negotiate the exchange of an American citizen. The fact of such negotiations was confirmed by the national security advisor of the US president, Jake Sullivan, but clarified that “there is still no clear way to resolve the issue.”
• If Hershkovich is found guilty by a Russian court, he could face up to 20 years in prison.