A verdict in the trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is expected to be returned as the State Prosecutors Office in Russia says they are seeking a sentence of 18 years in a high security prison for the American citizen.
Patrick Reevell, Kevin Shalvey, and Jon HaworthThe espionage trial of American journalist Evan Gershkovich resumed in a Russian court on Thursday.is expected to be returned on Friday as the State Prosecutors Office in Russia says they are seeking a sentence of 18 years in high security prison for the American citizen.
The exceptional speed of the trial has prompted speculation that Russia may be hurrying to convict Gershkovich in order to conduct a prison exchange that may have been agreed. In the past, Russia has preferred to only trade people once they have been convicted. However, the State Department on Thursday said it doesn't have any assessment of why the trial was moved up so quickly.
The process is moving exceptionally fast for an espionage trial, which normally take months or even years. The second hearing was also moved up abruptly by a month, after originally being scheduled for mid-August.Gershkovich was arrested by Russia's FSB intelligence agency while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg in March last year. The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. and dozens of international media organisations have vehemently denied the charges against him.
Gershkovich's trial is being held in secret and Russian authorities have never presented any evidence publicly to support the charges against him. Russian prosecutors have charged him with gathering secrets on the "production and repair of military equipment" for the CIA, a claim his newspaper has denied as a "transparent lies," saying Gershkovich was doing his job as a reporter.
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