Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a Russian court found him guilty of espionage on Friday.
The 32-year-old journalist was on a reporting assignment in Russia when he was detained by the Federal Security Bureau in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on March 29, 2023.
Gershkovich is the first American journalist to be detained on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War.
Wall Street Journal publisher Almar Latour and editor in chief Emma Tucker released a joint statement shortly after the Russian court rendered the guilty verdict, calling it a “disgraceful, sham conviction.”
“Journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until he’s released,” they said in the statement. “This must end now.”
President Joe Biden also slammed the conviction, saying Gershkovich was “targeted by the Russian government because he is a journalist and an American.”
“We will continue to stand strong for press freedom in Russia and worldwide and stand against all those who seek to attack the press or target journalists,” the president said in a statement.
Friends, family, and supporters of the 32-year-old journalist are demanding his release from Russian custody as the US journalist is being held in Lefortovo prison, an infamous former KGB detention center located in Moscow.
Former prisoners and those who visited the notorious Russian prison recalled harrowing experiences of isolation — a stark contrast to the life the US journalist was living in New York and Russia before his arrest.
