A Moscow court on Tuesday again extended the pretrial detention for Bowdoin graduate and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich until June 30, according to state-run news outlet TASS.
[RELATED: US Embassy “Deeply Disappointed” After Russia Upholds Detention of WSJ Reporter Evan Gershkovich…]
Gershkovich has been in held in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison for almost a full year following his arrest on espionage charges on March 29, 2023, while working for the Journal in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.
Russia’s Federal Security Service alleged that Gershkovich, the first American journalist to be arrested on charges of spying in Russia since the Cold War, was “acting as an agent for the American side, collected top-secret data about the activity of an enterprise of the Russian military-industrial complex.”
The 32-year-old, his family, the WSJ, and the U.S. government have denied the spying allegations, declaring Gershkovich to be wrongfully detained.
[RELATED: Bowdoin Grad, Wall Street Journal Reporter Arrested in Russia for “Espionage”…]
His parents, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich, attended President Biden’s State of the Union on Capitol Hill earlier this month.
Tuesday’s ruling, which was carried out in a closed-door session, marks the fifth extension of Gershkovich’s pretrial detention.
“It’s a ruling that ensures Evan will sit in a Russian prison well past one year. It was also Evan’s 12th court appearance, baseless proceedings that falsely portray him as something other than what he is—a journalist who was doing his job,” the WSJ wrote in a statement Tuesday.
“He should never have been detained. Journalism is not a crime, and we continue to demand his immediate release,” the outlet wrote.
The Biden administration has been working on securing a prisoner swap to free him, alongside other American prisoners including U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, but a deal has yet to emerge.
In a February interview with journalist and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to allow Gershkovich to go back to the U.S. with Carlson.
“We have done so many gestures of goodwill out of decency that I think we have run out of them,” the Russian president said.
Putin told Carlson that “an agreement can be reached” with the U.S. to release Gershkovich, but that he was looking for “reciprocal steps” from the U.S. State Department in negotiations.
Good! He is a Zionist Supremacist spy!