By Anthony Marcus, correspondent in Washington. Eurasia Business News, July 19, 2024. Article n°1100.

The Sverdlovsk Regional Court will today pass a verdict in the criminal case of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) journalist Evan Gershkovich, accused of espionage (Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The prosecutor’s office requested 18 years in prison for him. The journalist pleaded not guilty.

The process takes place behind closed doors. The judicial investigation took place in two sessions, at one of the trials, the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Sverdlovsk Region, Vyacheslav Wegner, with whom Evan Gershkovich met during a trip to the Urals, was interrogated by the prosecution. With him, they allegedly discussed the activities of the Wagner PMC chaired by Prigozhin, the journalist did not admit guilt.

The verdict will be announced in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court on Friday, July 19.

Evan Gershkovich, his employer (The Wall Street Journal), and the U.S. government have firmly rejected the espionage charges, maintaining that he was simply doing his job as an accredited reporter when he was arrested. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has stated that Russian authorities have failed to provide any evidence to support the charges and has called for Gershkovich’s immediate release.

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Evan Hershkovich, a journalist for the U.S. newspaper WSJ, was detained on March 29, 2023 in Yekaterinburg. According to the FSB, on the instructions of the U.S. intelligence services, the journalist collected information constituting a state secret about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.

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The case has further strained relations between Russia and the West, with some viewing it as a potential leverage point for future prisoner exchanges. The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that a possible exchange was being discussed through the American and Russian special services.

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© Copyright 2024 – Eurasia Business News. Article No. 1100.