26 March 2024 , 12:04
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Russian officials have not provided any evidence to back up their baseless espionage allegations
Falsely jailed reporter Evan Gershkovich’s detention has been extended once again after being locked up for almost a year by Russia on bogus spy charges.
The innocent US citizen, 32, will now cruelly remain in custody at a notorious Moscow jail until at least the end of June.
Gershkovich has already spent 363 long and painful days behind bars as he awaits trail on the trumped up charges.
He was pictured looking defiant and smiling today at the closed-door hearing, standing in a glass court cage wearing a blue shirt.
There has still been no date set for his trial - and he remains in limbo as Russia repeatedly extends his pre-trial detention.
At the end of January, Gershkovich had his detention extended until the end of March.
And it has now been extended again until June 30.
The Wall Street Journal reporter was detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on March 29, 2023, in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on trumped up charges of espionage.
Putin’s spy service alleged that the reporter, acting on the instructions of the US, collected secret information about a Russian military-industrial complex.
But Russian officials have not provided any evidence to back up their false claims.
Both Gershkovich and the Journal vehemently deny the allegations, while Washington declares him wrongfully detained.
The US citizen has repeatedly launched appeals to secure his freedom - all have so far been rejected.
He is the first Western reporter to be jailed on espionage charges in Russia since the Soviet era, and he faces a prison term of up to 20 years if convicted.
The US ambassador to Moscow today demanded that Russia free Gershkovich and said that the Kremlin was using him and other American citizens as pawns.
Ambassador Lynne Tracy said the latest decision to extend Gershkovich’s pre-trial detention "feels particularly painful, as this week marks one year since Evan was arrested and wrongfully detained".
She continued: "Evan’s case is not about evidence, due process, or rule of law.
"It is about using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends, as the Kremlin is also doing in the case of Paul Whelan."
Whelan, a former US marine, was arrested in Moscow in late 2018.
He was convicted of spying and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has said it will consider a swap for Gershkovich only after a verdict in his trial.
But the US has previously claimed that proposals have been rejected.