An American reporter for the Wall Street Journal was sentenced Friday to 16 years in prison after being convicted of espionage in what his employer called \u201ca hurried, secret trial that the U.S. government has condemned as a sham.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evan Gershkovich<\/a> was ordered to serve the sentence at a high-security penal colony, the Journal<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n \u201cThe court\u2019s Friday verdict \u2014 after three days of hearings \u2014 was widely viewed as a foregone conclusion, since acquittals in Russian espionage trials are exceedingly rare,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n \u201cThis disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist,\u201d Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Emma Tucker and Wall Street Journal publisher Almar Latour said in a statement.<\/p>\n Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 by Russian authorities while on assignment for the Wall Street Journal<\/a> in Yekaterinburg.<\/p>\n Russian officials \u201chave produced no public evidence to support their allegations,\u201d the Journal reported.<\/p>\n \u201cAuthorities claimed, without offering any evidence, that he was gathering secret information for the U.S.,\u201d the Associated Press<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n The U.S. State Department said Gershkovich was \u201cwrongfully detained\u201d and said it is working to secure his release.<\/p>\n President Joe Biden was quoted as saying, \u201cWe are pushing hard for Evan\u2019s release and will continue to do so.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I have long said and as the U.N. also concluded, there is no question that Russia is wrongfully detaining Evan. Journalism is not a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n The AP reported that in Russia, \u201cespionage<\/a> and treason cases are typically shrouded in secrecy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRussian courts convict more than 99 percent of defendants, and prosecutors can appeal sentences that they regard as too lenient.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike the trial\u2019s opening June 26 in Yekaterinburg and previous hearings in Moscow<\/a> where reporters could see Gershkovich briefly before proceedings began, there was no access to the courtroom Thursday when the trial resumed,\u201d the news agency reported. \u201cMedia were allowed in Friday for the verdict.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGershkovich was afforded few of the protections normally accorded to defendants in the U.S. and other Western countries,\u201d the Journal reported.<\/p>\n Multiple news outlets speculated that the accusation and imprisonment was orchestrated with an eye toward a prisoner swap. Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have raised the issue with the U.S., according to the Journal.<\/p>\n The appalling 16 year sentence handed down to Evan Gershkovich today by the Putin regime is state sponsored hostage taking-plain and simple. The only upside is that Russia tends to wait to do prisoner swaps after their hostages are \u201cconvicted\u201d so perhaps a swap is more likely now pic.twitter.com\/2KYBIvvotl<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Sir William Browder KCMG (@Billbrowder) July 19, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n\n \u201cPutin indicated that he would be open to a prisoner swap for Gershkovich and others,\u201d according to the report. \u201cHe made clear reference to Vadim Krasikov, an FSB [Federal Security Service] operative now serving a life sentence in Germany for killing a Chechen \u00e9migr\u00e9 in Berlin in 2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The New York Times<\/a> report observed that the trial date had suddenly been moved up and that the case moved faster than usual.<\/p>\n \u201cThe expedited nature of the case suggested that Moscow might be ready to trade Mr. Gershkovich,\u201d the Times reported.<\/p>\n \u201cThe proceedings were recently moved up by more than three weeks, and the court concluded the case, a process that usually takes months, in a matter of weeks, with only three hearings.\u201d<\/p>\n This article appeared originally on The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post WSJ Reporter Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison, Employer Calls It a \u2018Disgraceful, Sham Conviction\u2019<\/a> appeared first on The Gateway Pundit<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An American reporter for the Wall Street Journal was sentenced Friday to 16 years in prison after being<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n