A Moscow court on Thursday extended Gershkovich’s preventive detention for three months, arrested in late March in Russia for “espionage.” The US State Department calls for his release.
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The United States has asked Russia for the immediate release of American journalist Evan Gershkovich, whose pretrial detention was extended by a Moscow court on Thursday by three months.
“The accusations against Evan Gershkovich are without foundation. We once again call on Russia to immediately release Evan and to release wrongfully detained American citizen Paul Whelan,” a US State Department spokesperson said.
A Moscow court on Thursday extended Gershkovich’s pretrial detention by three months. arrested at the end of March in Russia for “espionage”“, an accusation that he rejects. “The detention period is extended by three months until November 30,” the press service of the Lefortovski court reported in a statement.
oh Wall Street Journal, for whom Gershkovich works, has already criticized the court decision. “We are very disappointed that he is Arbitrary and unfair detention for doing his job as a journalist,” the US newspaper said in a statement.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also criticized the Moscow court’s decision, saying it reflects “the brutal violence”of the Russian regime. For the head of German diplomacy, the decision of the Moscow court on the journalist “shows what brutal violence within the country means and that there was no fair trial.”
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Russia to “stop suing the press for your work“. “Each new extension of the detention of Evan Gershkovich is a blow to press freedom in Russia and an attack on the work of foreign correspondents in the country,” CPJ official Carlos Martínez said in a statement.
Source: Observadora
