A Russian court sentenced US journalist Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison on Friday as the espionage trial of the Wall Street Journal reporter concluded in Yekaterinburg.
Russian news agencies reported the verdict after the prosecution earlier demanded an 18-year prison term for Gershkovich.
The trial, which began on June 26, took place behind closed doors.
Press freedom advocates, media outlets around the globe, and the US government have condemned Russia’s prosecution of Gershkovich as a sham and demanded his release.
The 32-year-old reporter was arrested in March 2023. He is accused of gathering information on the Uralvagonzavod defence equipment factory in Nizhny Tagil, which lies 130 kilometres to the north of Yekaterinburg, on behalf of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker issued a statement at the start of the trial describing the proceedings in the Ural Mountains city as “shameful and illegitimate.”
Like many Western journalists, Gershkovich worked and researched in Russia with accreditation from the Foreign Ministry in Moscow.
He spent most of his pre-trial detention, which lasted for more than a year, in a Moscow prison. He repeatedly appealed against the extension of his detention without success.
Gershkovich’s arrest is being seen as a warning to foreign correspondents still working in Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Paradoxically, however, his sentencing could speed up his return to the United States, as a formal conviction is usually necessary in Russia before a prisoner exchange can take place.
The Kremlin recently said talks were under way regarding an exchange of Russian prisoners held in the US for Gershkovich’s freedom.
Another potential target for Russian authorities to exchange for Gershkovich could be a Russian man who was convicted of murdering an ethnic Chechen man born in Georgia in a central Berlin park in broad daylight.
