WSJ reporter gets 16-year prison sentence, employer denounces conviction as disgraceful

An American reporter for the Wall Street Journal was sentenced Friday to 16 years in prison after being convicted of espionage in what his employer called “a hurried, secret trial that the U.S. government has condemned as a sham.”

Evan Gershkovich was ordered to serve the sentence at a high-security penal colony, the Journal reported.

“The court’s Friday verdict — after three days of hearings — was widely viewed as a foregone conclusion, since acquittals in Russian espionage trials are exceedingly rare,” according to the report.

“This disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist,” Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Emma Tucker and Wall Street Journal publisher Almar Latour said in a statement.

Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 by Russian authorities while on assignment for the Wall Street Journal in Yekaterinburg.

Russian officials “have produced no public evidence to support their allegations,” the Journal reported.

“Authorities claimed, without offering any evidence, that he was gathering secret information for the U.S.,” the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. State Department said Gershkovich was “wrongfully detained” and said it is working to secure his release.

President Joe Biden was quoted as saying, “We are pushing hard for Evan’s release and will continue to do so.

“As I have long said and as the U.N. also concluded, there is no question that Russia is wrongfully detaining Evan. Journalism is not a crime.”

The AP reported that in Russia, “espionage and treason cases are typically shrouded in secrecy.”

“Russian courts convict more than 99 percent of defendants, and prosecutors can appeal sentences that they regard as too lenient.

“Unlike the trial’s opening June 26 in Yekaterinburg and previous hearings in Moscow where reporters could see Gershkovich briefly before proceedings began, there was no access to the courtroom Thursday when the trial resumed,” the news agency reported. “Media were allowed in Friday for the verdict.”

“Gershkovich was afforded few of the protections normally accorded to defendants in the U.S. and other Western countries,” the Journal reported.

Multiple news outlets speculated that the accusation and imprisonment was orchestrated with an eye toward a prisoner swap. Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have raised the issue with the U.S., according to the Journal.

The appalling 16 year sentence handed down to Evan Gershkovich today by the Putin regime is state sponsored hostage taking-plain and simple. The only upside is that Russia tends to wait to do prisoner swaps after their hostages are “convicted” so perhaps a swap is more likely now pic.twitter.com/2KYBIvvotl

— Sir William Browder KCMG (@Billbrowder) July 19, 2024

“Putin indicated that he would be open to a prisoner swap for Gershkovich and others,” according to the report. “He made clear reference to Vadim Krasikov, an FSB [Federal Security Service] operative now serving a life sentence in Germany for killing a Chechen émigré in Berlin in 2019.”

The New York Times report observed that the trial date had suddenly been moved up and that the case moved faster than usual.

“The expedited nature of the case suggested that Moscow might be ready to trade Mr. Gershkovich,” the Times reported.

“The proceedings were recently moved up by more than three weeks, and the court concluded the case, a process that usually takes months, in a matter of weeks, with only three hearings.”