The trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich ended Friday with his conviction on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government have dismissed as fabricated. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Here’s what we know about the secret process.
It took place in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in the city of Yekaterinburgabout 880 miles (1,416 kilometers) east of Moscow. That’s the city where Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 during a reporting trip.
The hearing was adjourned. Gershkovich was in court for the verdict, standing in the defendants’ glass cage, dressed in a dark T-shirt. His head was shaved, as it had been at the beginning of his trial in June. It is not known whether he chose to shave it or was forced to do so.
The judge sentenced Gershkovich to 16 years in a maximum-security penal colony. The judge asked Gershkovich if he understood the sentence, and he replied in Russian: “Yes, Your Honor.” The judge asked if he had any questions, and Gershkovich replied: “No, Your Honor.”
As the press cameras left the courtroom, someone shouted, “We love you, Evan.”
Gershkovich, the American-born son of immigrants from the USSR, is the first Western journalist to be arrested on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia. Russian authorities claimed, without providing evidence, that he was gathering secret information for the U.S.
The State Department has declared him “unlawfully detained,” committing the government to actively pursuing his release.
The magazine’s publisher, Almar Latour, and Emma Tucker, its editor-in-chief, called it a “disgraceful, sham conviction” in a statement after the verdict. “Journalism is not a crime and we will not rest until he is released. This must stop now,” Latour and Tucker said.
A senior White House spokesman also called the proceedings “nothing more than a sham trial.”
“Evan has never been an employee of the United States government. Evan is not a spy. Journalism is not a crime. And Evan should never have been detained in the first place,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday. “Russia has failed to justify Evan’s continued detention. He, like fellow Republican Paul Whelan, is simply being used as a bargaining chip.”
Gershkovich’s arrest came about a year after the arrest of President Vladimir Putin. pushed through laws that has sent shivers down the spines of journalists, criminalizing criticism of Russia’s war in Ukraine and statements seen as discrediting the military. Foreign journalists largely left the country after the laws were introduced, but some have returned. There are concerns about whether Russian authorities will crack down on them as hostility between Moscow and Washington grows.
After the verdict, Gershkovich is expected to be returned to the Yekaterinburg detention facility where he was held during the trial. Both the prosecution and defense have 15 days to appeal the sentence. If no appeal is filed, Gershkovich will be returned to prison.
If an appeal is filed, Gershkovich will likely remain in Yekaterinburg until a new hearing.
The transfer process could take days or even months. Only when his lawyers are told he has arrived at the prison will it be clear where Gershkovich will serve his sentence.
While relations between Russia and the US are at their lowest point since the Cold War, the countries reached a swap deal in 2022 that freed them WNBA star Brittney Grinerwho was serving a 9 1/2 year sentence for possession of cannabis. Griner was exchanged for arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was imprisoned in the U.S.
The countries also swapped Marine veteran Trevor Reed, who served nine years in Russia for assaulting a police officer, and Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenkowho was serving a 20-year prison sentence for complicity in cocaine smuggling.
Putin has hinted that he would be open to swapping Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 murder in Berlin of a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent. However, Germany’s willingness to cooperate is uncertain.
It could take months or years. Russian officials have previously said a swap could only happen after a ruling, but it depends on when Moscow and Washington can reach a deal. Past experiences differ dramatically.
Griner was exchanged about four months after her sentence. Reed was released 21 months after his sentence. Whelan, convicted of espionage in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison, is still waiting.