WSJ correspondent Evan Gershkovich attends a court hearing of the Moscow City Court relating to the appeal for the extension of his detention in Moscow, Russia, 10 October 2023. Evan Gershkovich, a US journalist at The Wall Street Journal covering Russia, was detained in Yekaterinburg on 29 March 2023. The Russia`s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that on the instructions of the American authorities, the journalist collected information constituting a state secret about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex. He is charged under Art. 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - Espionage, which could carry a sentence of up to 20 years. EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV
A Moscow court has prolonged the incarceration of American journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was seized in Russia earlier this year on espionage accusations, until January.
The court prolonged Gershkovic's "period of detention" by two months till January 30.
The charges have been refuted by the Wall Street Journal journalist in Moscow, his employer, and the US government.
The hearing was held behind closed doors, with no reporters present.
His arrest would very certainly be extended, as Moscow seldom releases anybody jailed for trial on major allegations.
Gershkovich was detained in late March during a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, becoming the first Western journalist imprisoned in Russia on espionage charges since the Soviet period.
He was imprisoned in Moscow's infamous Lefortovo jail.
The American, who formerly worked for Agence France-Presse, stayed to report from Russia after the Kremlin launched its war in Ukraine, despite the departure of many Western journalists.
Russia has not made public any proof of the claims leveled against Gershkovich. /BGNES
