American journalist Evan Gershkovich arrived at a court in Yekaterinburg, Russia, today for the start of his trial. Gershkovich has been in prison since March 2023 on espionage charges. The trial will be held behind closed doors, according to journalists from the AFP news agency. “Journalism is not a crime. These past 15 months have been extraordinarily painful for Evan and our family. We miss our son and want him home. We are deeply disappointed that he will have to endure further attempts to discredit him,” Gershkovich’s family said, while his newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, doubled down, saying the espionage charges against him were “fabricated.”
Who is Evan Gershkovich
Journalist for the Wall Street Journal, 32-year-old Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 by the Russian security services (FSB), making him the first Western reporter since the Soviet era to be accused of espionage in Russia. Gershkovich appeared today in a glass box in a Sverdlovsk regional courtroom, with a shaved head and a dark checked shirt. The accredited press had brief access to the courtroom before the trial began behind closed doors. Gershkovich, who also worked for the AFP in Moscow from 2020 to 2022, is accused of collecting sensitive information on behalf of the CIA on one of the country’s main arms producers, the tank manufacturer Uralvagonzavod.
