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The trial of American journalist Evan Gershkovich in Russia began Wednesday in the first espionage case against a Western journalist since the Cold War.
Gershkovich, a 32-year-old reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was detained in the city of Yekaterinburg in March last year.
He has spent the last 15 months in Lefortovo, a high-security prison in Moscow, but has now been transferred back to Yekaterinburg, some 1,500 kilometers east toward the Ural mountains, for the beginning of his closed-door trial.
Ahead of the hearing, journalists were given a rare glimpse of Gershkovich who appeared with a shaven head but looked to be in good form, casting several smiles in the direction of reporters.
In court documents, prosecutors several weeks ago accused Gershkovich of collecting “secret information” at a defense plant “under instructions from the CIA,” a charge which carries a 20-year prison sentence.
But the U.S. government and independent analysts say the Russian authorities are using the case and those of other Americans jailed in Russia on spurious charges to strong-arm Western countries to release prisoners which the Kremlin considers to be high-value assets.
“To even call it a trial, however, is unfair to Evan and a continuation of this travesty of justice that already has gone on for far too long,” Emma Tucker, editor in chief of Gershkovich’s employer, the Wall Street Journal, wrote in an open letter earlier this week.
“This bogus accusation of espionage will inevitably lead to a bogus conviction for an innocent man who would then face up to 20 years in prison for simply doing his job,” she added.
In an interview with American media personality Tucker Carlson earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted he would be looking to trade Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, a convicted assassin serving a life sentence in Germany.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, this month told Russian state-owned news agency TASS that “the ball is in the U.S.’s court, we are waiting for their response to the ideas that were presented to them.”
If a prisoner swap is reached, it could involve other Americans in jail in Russia, who include former marine Paul Whelan and teacher Marc Fogel, as well as dual citizens Ksenia Karelina, a ballerina and Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist.
