LONDON — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been sentenced to 16 years in a Russian penal colony on espionage charges after a guilty verdict was announced in an American journalist’s court on Friday.
The State Prosecutor’s Office in Russia requested an 18-year sentence. Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison, based on the charges.
In a joint statement, Dow Jones CEO and Wall Street Journal Publisher Almar Latour and Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker called the verdict a “reckless and false conviction” for correspondents who were “doing their job as journalists.”
“We will continue to do everything we can to secure Evan’s release and support his family,” the statement said. “Journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until he is released. This must end now.”
FILE – Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage in a courtroom in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Court officials said closing arguments in U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich’s espionage trial will take place Friday, July 19, 2024, due to the it was very fast in a case that saw journalists held in pre-trial detention for more than a year.
AP
The trial was moved to close arguments early Friday morning after only two days of hearings in the case of the newspaper Gershkovich and the United States has denounced as a sham. The extraordinary speed has led to speculation that Russia may have rushed to sentence Gershkovich in order to carry out a prison swap that may have been agreed upon.
In the past, Russia preferred to traffic people if they had been convicted. However, the State Department on Thursday said there was no assessment of why the tests were being carried out so quickly.
Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American, has spent more than a year in Russian custody since he was arrested on espionage charges that the Wall Street Journal and the United States say were made up. Gershkovich’s trial began in June with a one-day hearing behind closed doors at the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, a city about 900 miles from Moscow.
After just two days of hearings on Thursday, the court announced that it has finished considering all the evidence and closing arguments will now be heard on Friday. After that, Gershkovich is expected to be asked for a “final statement” before the court considers the verdict, a spokesman for the court said.
The process is extremely fast for espionage trials, which under normal circumstances can take months or even years to reach a verdict.
A view of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court building before the hearing in the trial of US journalist Evan Gershkovich, accused of espionage, in Yekaterinburg on July 18, 2024.
Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images
Gershkovich was arrested by Russia’s FSB intelligence agency while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg in March last year. The Wall Street Journal, US and dozens of international media organizations denied the allegations.
The US has accused Russia of taking Gershkovich and several other Americans hostage, using false accusations with the aim of exploiting them as political bargaining chips. In recent years, Russia has arrested several US citizens, including WNBA star Brittney Griner, before selling them to Russians jailed in western countries on serious charges.
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have publicly signaled that Russia wants to trade Gershkovich. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this week reaffirmed negotiations for continued exchanges with the Biden administration.
“The intelligence services of the two countries, with the agreement between President Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden in June 2021, have been in contact to see if there are people who can be exchanged with others,” he said.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is on trial on espionage charges, is seen inside a barricade for the defendants before a court hearing in Yekaterinburg, Russia June 26, 2024.
Evgenia Novozhenina / Reuters
Gershkovich’s trial was conducted in secret and Russian authorities never publicly presented evidence to support the charges against him. Russian prosecutors accused him of gathering secrets about the “production and repair of military equipment” for the CIA, a claim the newspaper dismissed as a “transparent lie,” saying Gershkovich was doing his job as a reporter.
“Evan’s wrongful arrest has been an outrage since his unjust arrest 477 days ago, and it must end now,” the Journal said in a statement before the verdict. “Even if Russia organizes its shameful sham trial, we continue to do everything we can to push for the immediate release of Evan and for the country unequivocally: Evan has done his job as a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Bring him home now.
Thursday’s hearing lasted more than five hours, with several breaks, according to reporters sitting outside the courtroom. Local news outlet It’s My City reported that only one witness appeared in court Thursday, Vyacheslav Vegner, a lawmaker from Putin’s ruling United Russia party in the Sverdlovsk regional parliament, who previously said he gave an interview to Gershkovich before his arrest.
Vegner told local website 66.ru that Gershkovich at the time had asked about public support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, the activities of Wagner’s mercenary group and how industrial companies in the Sverdlovsk region were being re-used.
Vegner on Thursday told Interfax that he had been questioned in court by the prosecution and the defense for about half an hour.
Court bailiffs block the hallway of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court before the trial of US journalist Evan Gershkovich, accused of espionage, in Yekaterinburg on July 18, 2024.
Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images
The Biden administration has said it is negotiating with Russia to try to free Gershkovich and another American, ex-Marine Paul Whelan, who has spent more than five years in prison by Russia on espionage charges that the US also says were fabricated. Russia released Griner in exchange for arms smuggler Viktor Bout, and another former US Marine Trevor Reed was traded for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot indicted in the US on drug smuggling charges.
Another American journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, a reporter for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has also spent 9 months in detention in Russia on charges related to his coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Roger Carstens, the US State Department’s special presidential envoy for hostage matters, said this week that Gershkovich and Whelan would return to US soil one day, but he could not say when.
“The US government is going to bring these two people home,” he said, speaking at the annual Aspen Security Forum. “And when we negotiate with Russia, we have a goal that can bring both of them home.”
Sen. Ben Cardin, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Friday condemned the sentence handed down in Russia against Gershkovich, and called on the international community to condemn and demand his freedom.
“The sham trial and 16-year sentence are a reminder of the lengths to which tyrants like Putin will go to use innocent people as bargaining chips, stifle free speech, and suppress the truth,” Cardin said in a statement.
Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum on Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked whether Russia might be willing to cut a deal to free Gershkovich or Whelan.
“Any effort to bring America home will be part of a back-and-forth discussion process,” Blinken replied. “Depending on what the other party is looking for, they will come to their own conclusions about whatever they want and we can bring people home. I don’t think that depends on the election in the United States or anywhere.”
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking at the same forum on Friday, said the White House would make “every effort” to get Gershkovich and Whelan released.
“All I can say is we’re laser focused,” Sullivan said.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Mike Levine, Shannon Kingston and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
