Russia: expected resumption of the trial of American reporter Evan Gershkovich

The trial è behind closed doors of American journalist Evan Gershkovich, imprisoned in Russia and accused "spy", is due to resume on Thursday & Ekaterinburg (Urals), city where he had been stopé end of March 2023 during a report.

The Wall Street Journal correspondent has been detained for almost 16 months on the basis of accusations that the Russian justice system has never substantiated and that his employer, his relatives and Washington vehemently reject.< /p>

The first hearing took place at the end of June and the next hearing was initially scheduled for mid-August. But the Sverdlovsky Regional Court announced this week that it would be brought forward to Thursday, at 11:00 a.m. (6:00 a.m. GMT), “at the request of the defense”.

As usual, it will remain closed to the public and the press. Russia, which is accused of having fabricated the case, maintains the greatest secrecy surrounding this affair.

For Washington, the arrest of Evan Gershkovich, 32, aims above all to monetize a possible exchange of prisoners.

Moscow admitted to negotiating his release and Russian President Vladimir Putin himself mentioned the case of Vadim Krassikov, in prison in Germany for a commissioned assassination attributed to the Russian special services.

Evan Gershkovich is the first Western journalist since Soviet times to be accused of espionage in Russia. His imprisonment sparked a significant wave of solidarity within American and European media.

At the end of June, the White House denounced a “sham” trial, repeating that Mr. Gershkovich had “never worked for the American government”, was “not a spy” and “should never have been arrested”.

– “Arbitrary” detention –

On the first day of his trial, June 26, Evan Gershkovich appeared with a shaved head, smiling in the glass cage reserved for the accused, but made no public statement to the press, as he had since the beginning of his imprisonment.

He communicates with his family and friends via letters read and censored by the prison administration.

The reporter, child of immigrants who fled the USSR for the United States, had settled in Russia in 2017. He was renowned for the quality and professionalism of his reporting.

In early July, a panel of UN experts ruled that his detention was “arbitrary” and that he should be released “without delay”.

American journalist Evan Gershkovich at the Sverdlovsky regional court, June 26, 2024 © AFP – NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA

Investigators assure that Mr. Gershkovich, who had worked for the AFP in Moscow in 2020-2021, collected sensitive information for the CIA on one of the main Russian arms manufacturers, the Uralvagonzavod company.

This factory notably produces T-90 tanks used in Ukraine and those of the new Armata generation, while its civilian activity is the production of freight wagons.< /p>

Russia detains several other Americans, including Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, arrested in 2023 for violating the “foreign agents” law, and the ex-Marine Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year prison sentence for espionage, a charge he disputes.

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