13 June 2024 , 15:41
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Washington has called the charges against Gershkovich ’fiction’
A sham trial has been set for falsely jailed reporter Evan Gershkovich who has spent 442 days behind bars in Russia on bogus charges of espionage.
The innocent American, 32, has been wrongly accused by Vladimir Putin’s crooks of collecting "secret information" for the CIA.
Gershkovich will stand trial in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, authorities announced today.
The Wall Street Journal reporter is accused of acting on "instructions from the CIA" to gather "secret information" about Uralvagonzavod, a military facility in the Sverdlovsk region.
It is the first time authorities have announced the details of the accusations against Gershkovich.
Moscow had previously not provided any public details of its case against Gershkovich, saying only that he was "caught red-handed".
There was no word on when the trial would begin.
The prosecutor’s office said Gershkovich’s indictment had now been finalised following an investigation by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
The US journalist was detained by the FSB on March 29, 2023, while on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, 870 miles east of Moscow,
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.
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 citizen has repeatedly launched appeals to secure his freedom - all have so far been rejected.
Since his arrest, Gershkovich has been held at Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison, the Soviet-era’s most prominent prison used during Joseph Stalin’s purges.
Despite the grim conditions, at each court appearance Gershkovich has smiled defiantly and appeared in good spirits.
Putin, 71, has publicly hinted he would be open to swapping him for a Russian national imprisoned in Germany, which is assumed to be Vadim Krasikov.
He was serving a life sentence for the 2019 killing in Berlin of a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent.
But Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said it would consider a prisoner swap only after a verdict in his trial.
US Ambassador Lynne Tracy, who regularly visited Gershkovich in prison and attended his court hearings, has called the charges against him "fiction".
Washington has repeatedly accused Moscow of arresting US citizens in a bid to use them as pawns to secure the release of Russians jailed abroad for serious crimes.
Since sending troops to Ukraine, Russia has detained several US nationals and other Westerners, seemingly bolstering that idea.