Wall Street Journal journalist loses appeal to be released from Russian prison
The IndependentThe latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Detained Wall Street Journal reporter, Evan Gershkovich, has lost his appeal to be released from prison in Russia, meaning he will remain locked up until at least 30 November. Russia’s Federal Security Service alleged Gershkovich, “acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.” Mr Gershkovich and his employer, the Wall Street Journal, along with the US government, have denied the allegations. open image in gallery Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage in a courtroom at the Moscow City Cour If Mr Gershkovich gets convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison. In a September letter to the UN’s working group on arbitrary detention, lawyers for the WSJ’s publisher accused President Putin of using Gershkovich as a pawn and of “holding him hostage.” The lawyers argue that Mr Putin wants to use Mr Gershkovich “to gain leverage over – and extract a ransom from – the United States, just as he has done with other American citizens whom he has wrongfully detained.” The letter said Gershkovich’s ongoing detention “is a flagrant violation of many of his fundamental human rights.” In June this year, nearly three dozen US senators wrote a letter to Mr Gershkovich expressing their “profound anger and concern” over his detention in the Russian prison.