Russia extends arrest of US reporter Evan Gershkovich. He has already spent nearly a year in jail

MOSCOW – A Moscow courtroom on Tuesday ordered Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to stay in jail on espionage fees till no less than overdue June, courtroom officers stated.

The 32-year-old U.S. citizen used to be arrested in overdue March 2023 whilst on a reporting commute and has spent nearly a year in the back of bars. His arrest used to be prolonged till June 30.

Gershkovich and his employer have denied the allegations, and the U.S. executive has declared him to be wrongfully detained.

His arrest in the town of Yekaterinburg rattled reporters in Russia, the place government have no longer detailed what, if any, proof they’ve to toughen the espionage fees.

Gershkovich is being held at Moscow’s Lefortovo jail, which is infamous for its harsh prerequisites.

U.S. ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy attended the courtroom listening to on Tuesday and reiterated that “the accusations against Evan are categorically untrue.”

“They are not a different interpretation of circumstances. They are fiction,” Tracy informed newshounds outdoor of the courthouse. “No justification for Evan’s continued detention, and no explanation as to why Evan doing his job as a journalist constituted a crime. Evan’s case is not about evidence, due process or rule of law. It is about using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends.”

Analysts have identified that Moscow could also be the use of jailed Americans as bargaining chips in hovering U.S.-Russian tensions over the Kremlin’s army operation in Ukraine. At least two U.S. electorate arrested in Russia in fresh years — together with WNBA superstar Brittney Griner — were exchanged for Russians jailed in the U.S.

Gershkovich is the primary American reporter to be arrested on espionage fees in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, used to be arrested by means of the KGB. Daniloff used to be launched for free of charge 20 days later in a change for an worker of the Soviet Union’s U.N. project who used to be arrested by means of the FBI, additionally on spying fees.