NOS News•yesterday, 09:34
The trial in Russia against American reporter Evan Gershkovich is taking place behind closed doors. The case will start next Wednesday on June 26. The Russian state news agencies TASS and RIA report this, based on information from the Russian court.
Last week, prosecutors announced that the case against Gershkovich will be heard by a court in Yekaterinburg, where the reporter was arrested in March 2023. The Russians accuse him of spying for the American intelligence service CIA. Gershkovich categorically denies this.
Russia correspondent Geert Groot Koerkamp:
“The fact that the trial against Evan Gershkovich is taking place behind closed doors means that the press and the public are not allowed to be present until the verdict. His lawyers are also not allowed to make any statements about the proceedings. This is a normal procedure for trials in which state secrets are involved. whether public safety may be at stake. But it is also a way to keep out snoopers, independent observers who can see how flimsy the evidence against the defendant actually is.
In recent years, for example, several eminent Russian scientists have been sentenced to heavy sentences in closed trials for ‘treason’. They are said to have supplied sensitive information to China, while, according to their shocked colleagues, they were simply doing their job by giving lectures and writing articles. The trial of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, accused of ‘extremism’, also took place behind closed doors in 2023. The press was only allowed to be present during the verdict.
Last week, the controversial trial of theater makers Zhenya Berkovich and Svetlana Petrichuk (who faces seven years in prison for an extremely successful play that would justify terrorism) was also unexpectedly closed to the public. According to the public prosecutor, this was necessary because participants in that trial were allegedly threatened. The lawyers are convinced that this is intended to conceal the fact that the accusations made against the women cannot withstand the test of criticism.”
Gershkovich has always said that he only did journalistic work, and no evidence has ever been released to support the accusation of espionage. Earlier this year, the US government said the journalist was “unjustly imprisoned” and that it was working to get him released. Gershkovich’s employer The Wall Street Journal also emphasizes that he was only concerned with reporting.
According to Washington, Russia is rounding up Americans to use them as a bargaining chip. For example, in 2022, the convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as Merchant of Death, was exchanged with the basketball player Brittney Griner .
Possible exchange
After the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, his team said he had been a candidate for a prisoner swap. The Russian opposition leader would be exchanged at the same time as two Americans held in Russia for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian secret agent convicted of murder in Germany .
The names of the two Americans were not mentioned at the time , but in addition to Gershkovich, they were said to be American former soldier Paul Whelan. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage in 2020 . Both Whelan and Krasikov are still in custody.
Kremlin spokesman Peskov said today that there have been discussions about Gershkovich being involved in another possible prisoner swap, but nothing will be released about this. It is therefore not known whether that exchange is actually in the works.
Appealed several times
Gershkovich, the son of Jewish Soviet émigrés and raised in New Jersey, speaks fluent Russian and moved to Moscow in late 2017 to join the English-language Moscow Times. He then worked for the French news agency AFP before joining The Wall Street Journal in 2022.
Gershkovich has appealed his detention several times, standing in the glass cages used for suspects in Russian courts. All appeals were rejected.
- Russia officially accuses journalist Gershkovich of spying for the CIA
- Journalist Evan Gershkovich detained in Russia for 1 year, ‘attack on free press’
- American journalist arrested in Russia, ‘serious concerns’ about his safety
Newsessentials Blog 
Posted on June 18, 2024
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