Russian Court Rejects Jailed WSJ Reporter’s Appeal, Gershkovich Stays Behind Bars

With his parents looking on in the courtroom, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on Thursday saw his detention at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison extended through August. 

Wearing a dark T-shirt and jeans, the journalist smiled briefly from inside a plexiglass enclosure during the proceedings, the Journal reported. Media outlets were given a few minutes of access to the courtroom and then were removed. 

Russian officials arrested Gershkovich on March 29 in the eastern city of Yekaterinburg and later accused him of espionage. The Journal denies the charge and the U.S. government has said it considers him wrongfully detained.

Gershkovich was fully accredited by the Russian foreign ministry. 

“I want to scream and say ‘Give me back my son,’” Gershkovich’s mother, Ella Milman, told the Journal before her flight to Russia. 

“It’s very hard, but I will be there smiling. I will be smiling for Evan, and they are not going to see my tears.” 

Gershkovich’s parents fled the Soviet Union in 1979 to settle in the U.S. On Thursday they stood next to the defendants' box before the hearing opened and chatted with their son while waiting for the judge’s ruling. 

On May 23, a Moscow judge granted the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, permission to extend Gershkovich’s detention while he awaits trial. On Thursday, his appeal was denied.

The U.S. has been pressing for the reporter to receive visits by officials from the American consulate in Moscow under the rules of the 1963 Vienna Convention.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Thursday that his government had received U.S. requests for consular access, TASS reported.

"The request has been received and is being reviewed,” Ryabkov said. “There is no decision yet. But I think that this is not a subject for the media at all, this is a purely routine issue. We are interacting with the US Embassy on this topic. They will receive all our notifications."

The FSB has charged that Gershkovich "acting at the behest of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of an enterprise within Russia’s military-industrial complex."

On June 13, the House of Representatives unanimously approved a resolution calling on Russia to release him.