SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 7.19.2024
THERE ARE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE THIS OBSCENE PROSECUTION EXCEPT TO QUOTE THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, “JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME.”
Evan Gershkovich’s former colleague at The Moscow Times, Pjtor Sauer, who currently reports for The Guardian, reacted to the sentencing on Friday by writing on X (formerly Twitter): “I have no words to describe this farce. Let’s get Evan out of there.”
Excerpted from The Moscow Times 7.19.2024
A judge in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region on Friday sentenced Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison on spying charges, a forgone conclusion in a closed trial that has been condemned as a sham by Washington and the journalist’s employer.
The Wall Street Journal slammed the verdict against Gershkovich after it was announced on Friday.
“This disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist,” Almar Latour, the chief executive of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Emma Tucker said in a statement.
“We will continue to do everything possible to press for Evan’s release and to support his family,” the two said. “Journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until he’s released. This must end now.”
“The court finds Evan Gershkovich guilty of committing the crime [of espionage]… and sentences him to 16 years imprisonment in a maximum-security penal colony,” the judge said, delivering the verdict as the U.S. reporter listened from inside a glass defendant’s cage in the courtroom.
The judge added that the nearly 500 days Gershkovich spent in pre-trial detention would count toward his prison sentence, which the reporter’s defense team can appeal in the coming days, though it was not immediately clear if they plan to do so.
“Gershkovich, do you understand the sentence?” the judge asked, in response to which the American journalist nodded. After that, the judge adjourned the court and Gershkovich was removed by law enforcement officers.
State prosecutors had asked the judge to impose an 18-year sentence for Gershkovich on the spying charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The U.S. reporter, who was arrested while on a reporting trip in March 2023, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On Friday, the Sverdlovsk Regional Court heard closing arguments in the brief trial after resuming hearings the previous day following a request from Gershkovich’s defense team to move the hearing date — originally set for Aug. 13. The trial, which has been closed to the media, began in late June, some 15 months after the reporter’s detention.
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