(26 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++PLEASE NOTE: AP IS OPERATING IN RUSSIA ACCORDING TO RUSSIAN RESTRICTIONS ON ALL REPORTING RELATED TO THE ONGOING MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Yekaterinburg, Russia - 26 June 2024
1. Various of US journalist Evan Gershkovich in glass cage in court room
2. Close up of padlock on the cage door
3. Cameras, Gershkovich in glass cage
4. Mid of Gershkovich in glass cage, policeman nearby
5. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Mikael Odzoyev, representative of prosecution:
“The investigation established and documented that American journalist of the Wall Street Journal newspaper Evan Gershkovich in March 2023, on instructions from the CIA, collected secret information in the Sverdlovsk region on the activities of a defense enterprise for the production and repair of military equipment. Gershkovich carried out illegal actions with careful measures of secrecy.”
6. Various of court exterior
STORYLINE:
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich went on trial behind closed doors in Yekaterinburg on Wednesday, 15 months after his arrest in the Russian city on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny.
The 32-year-old journalist appeared in the court in a glass defendants' cage, his head shaved and wearing a black-and-blue plaid shirt. A yellow padlock was attached to the cage.
Journalists were allowed into the courtroom for a few minutes before the proceedings were closed.
Also briefly permitted in court were two consular officers from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, according to the embassy.
The next hearing for Gershkovich was set for Aug. 13, court officials said.
The American-born son of immigrants from the USSR, Gershkovich is the first Western journalist arrested on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia.
Authorities arrested Gershkovich when he was on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountains, and claimed he was gathering secret information for the U.S.
The State Department has declared him “wrongfully detained,” thereby committing the government to assertively seek his release.
The Journal has worked diligently to keep the case in the public eye and it has become an issue in the combative months leading up to the U.S. presidential election.
With Gershkovich's trial being closed, few details of his case may become public.
But the Russian Prosecutor General's office said this month that he is accused of “gathering secret information” on orders from the CIA about Uralvagonzavod, a plant about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Yekaterinburg that produces and repairs tanks and other military equipment.
Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison if the court finds him guilty, which is almost certain.
Russian courts convict more than 99% of the defendants who come before them, and prosecutors can appeal sentences that they regard as too lenient, as well as acquittals.
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