Russian prosecutors introduced a significant step on Thursday of their case towards Evan Gershkovich, the imprisoned American journalist, saying they’d finalized the espionage indictment towards him and that he could be tried within the Russian metropolis of Yekaterinburg, the place he was arrested greater than a yr in the past.
Mr. Gershkovich, 32, ought to get transferred from the infamous high-security Lefortovo jail in Moscow to face trial within the metropolis, which is about 880 miles east of the Russian capital, stated Yevgeny Smirnov, a Russian lawyer who has labored on related instances.
When such espionage instances go to trial in Russia, they often take about 4 months however can take as much as a yr, and they’re sometimes closed to the information media, Mr. Smirnov stated in a cellphone interview. If convicted, Mr. Gershkovich faces as much as 20 years in jail.
The Russian authorities have urged up to now that they could possibly be open to a prisoner swap for Mr. Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Avenue Journal, however solely after a verdict is handed down in his case.
Talking final week at a gathering with representatives of worldwide information companies, President Vladimir V. Putin stated that Russian and American intelligence companies have been “in contact on this subject.”
“They completely must be resolved on the idea of reciprocity,” Mr. Putin stated, referring to any potential prisoner swap involving Mr. Gershkovich.
The detention of Mr. Gershkovich, the primary American journalist arrested on a spying cost for the reason that finish of the Chilly Battle, highlighted the extent to which Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has broken relations between Moscow and Washington.
In a press release, prosecutors stated they’d decided that “below directions from the C.I.A.” and “utilizing painstaking conspiratorial strategies,” Mr. Gershkovich “was accumulating secret data” a few manufacturing unit that produces tanks and different weapons within the Sverdlovsk area.
The prosecutors’ assertion marked the primary time that Russian state representatives revealed particulars of the accusations towards Mr. Gershkovich. The assertion didn’t current any proof to again up the accusations.
Mr. Gershkovich, his employer and america authorities have denied the cost towards him. The U.S. authorities has designated Mr. Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained,” which successfully signifies that it considers him a political prisoner.
In keeping with Mr. Smirnov, Russian safety companies decide what constitutes labeled materials and what doesn’t in such instances. The protection has no method to problem their assertions, he stated.
“We perceive clearly that he’s in jail to get exchanged,” Mr. Smirnov stated in reference to Mr. Gershkovich. He added that relying on secret talks on any doable prisoner change, the trial could possibly be expedited to achieve a verdict sooner.
Mr. Gershkovich is one among a number of American nationals who’ve been detained in Russia in recent times, and his case has raised fears that the Kremlin is in search of to make use of U.S. residents as bargaining chips to be exchanged for Russians held within the West.
Others embrace Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, and Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Final week a Russian court docket sentenced Yuri Malev, a Russian American nationwide, to 3 and a half years in a penal colony after he had criticized Russia, its management and its battle in Ukraine on social media.
