A Russian courtroom sentenced US journalist Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in jail on Friday because the espionage trial of the Wall Street Journal reporter concluded in Yekaterinburg.
Russian news companies reported the decision after the prosecution earlier demanded an 18-year jail time period for Gershkovich.
The trial, which started on June 26, passed off behind closed doorways.
Press freedom advocates, media retailers across the globe, and the US authorities have condemned Russia’s prosecution of Gershkovich as a sham and demanded his launch.
The 32-year-old reporter was arrested in March 2023. He is accused of gathering data on the Uralvagonzavod defence tools manufacturing facility in Nizhny Tagil, which lies 130 kilometres to the north of Yekaterinburg, on behalf of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker issued an announcement in the beginning of the trial describing the proceedings within the Ural Mountains metropolis as “shameful and illegitimate.”
Like many Western journalists, Gershkovich labored and researched in Russia with accreditation from the Foreign Ministry in Moscow.
He spent most of his pre-trial detention, which lasted for greater than a yr, in a Moscow jail. He repeatedly appealed in opposition to the extension of his detention with out success.
Gershkovich’s arrest is being seen as a warning to international correspondents nonetheless working in Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Paradoxically, nevertheless, his sentencing might velocity up his return to the United States, as a proper conviction is often essential in Russia earlier than a prisoner alternate can happen.
The Kremlin just lately mentioned talks have been beneath manner concerning an alternate of Russian prisoners held within the US for Gershkovich’s freedom.
Another potential goal for Russian authorities to alternate for Gershkovich might be a Russian man who was convicted of murdering an ethnic Chechen man born in Georgia in a central Berlin park in broad daylight.
Source: www.anews.com.tr