Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony by a Russian court on Friday after a rushed espionage trial in which the government rushed through its "evidence" against the 32-year-old U.S. citizen in just a few days in order to reach the foregone conclusion of the case.
Journalist Evan Gershkovich found guilty of espionage in Russia. Sentenced to 16 years in prison.
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) July 19, 2024
A ridiculous, sham process that wrongly convicted an innocent American reporter.
I stand with Evan today and always. We will not stop speaking out until he is free.
Handed down in a court in Yekaterinburg, Gershkovich's sentence came after just three days of hearings in which, because Russia is a totalitarian hellhole overseen by Vladimir Putin where there's no rule of law, the accused lacked the right to mount a real defense. Gershkovich was detained last March by Russia's FSB and has been in custody ever since.
From the WSJ's reporting on the development:
Russian authorities have produced no public evidence to support their allegations, which Gershkovich, the Journal and the U.S. government have vehemently and repeatedly denied. A court spokeswoman said that Gershkovich “did not admit guilt” during Friday’s proceedings.
“This fake, sham legal process that we are seeing play out has no bearing on the urgency that we have placed on seeking a release of Evan’s detention and seeking a release for Paul Whelan as well. And we’ll continue to work that process tirelessly,” Vedant Patel, deputy spokesman for the State Department, said Thursday.
[...]
The proceedings against Gershkovich were accelerated as the court moved up hearing dates by nearly a month. Russian officials, from President Vladimir Putin on down, have signaled an interest in swapping Gershkovich for Russians held in the West.
Asked on Friday about a possible exchange of Gershkovich, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “I’m leaving that question without an answer,” according to Russian state media.
“There is a charge of espionage, so this is a very, very sensitive area,” Peskov told reporters. “We simply cannot give any other comments, because the trial is ongoing.”
The false charges against Gershkovich and the subsequent sham trial are, as the Russian government officials hinted in their statements, another ploy to get leverage for use against the U.S.
As the exceedingly weak Biden administration has shown, even holding a WNBA player like Brittney Griner can be used by Russia to secure the release and return of its "Merchant of Death" Viktor Bout.
Gershkovich, according to Russia's trumped-up charges, was working on behalf of the CIA to spy on a Russian defense company. The accredited journalist's "sole purpose" for being in Russia, however, was to do his job of "reporting for the [Wall Street] Journal."
In a statement, Dow Jones CEO and Wall Street Journal Publisher Almar Latour and Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Emma Tucker said 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."
"We will continue to do everything possible to press for Evan’s release and to support his family," the statement pledged. "Journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until he’s released. This must end now."
Bring Evan Home.