Russia has arbitrarily detained WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich, UN panel concludes

International legal scholars cite ‘striking lack of any factual or legal substantiation’ for espionage accusation

US journalist Evan Gershkovich, accused of espionage, smiles from inside a glass defendants' cage prior to a hearing in Yekaterinburg's Sverdlovsk Regional Court on June 26, 2024. Picture: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP

Russia has arbitrarily detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich under unsubstantiated claims of espionage and should immediately release him from prison, a United Nations panel said.

The findings, released Tuesday but adopted in March, add to international condemnation of Gershkovich’s arrest and imprisonment in Russia, where he has been held since March of last year on an allegation of espionage that he, the Journal and the U.S. government strongly deny. The U.S. State Department determined Gershkovich was wrongfully detained weeks after his arrest and called for his release.

“There is a striking lack of any factual or legal substantiation provided by the authorities of the Russian Federation for the espionage charges against Mr. Gershkovich,” the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded, adding that Russia has failed to refute the argument that its espionage charges were intended to punish Gershkovich for his journalistic work.

Evan Gershkovich stands inside a defendants' cage before a hearing to consider an appeal on his arrest at the Moscow City Court in Moscow on April 18, 2023. Picture: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP

“Gershkovich’s arrest was...in fact designed to punish his reporting on the armed conflict” between Russia and Ukraine, the group said. “Consequently, it lacked a legal basis and is arbitrary.” Dow Jones, the publisher of the Journal, submitted a request to the working group last September for a formal opinion on Gershkovich’s imprisonment. The body, which is composed of lawyers and legal scholars from five countries who were appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council, said it sought information from the Russian government concerning Gershkovich’s imprisonment in December, but hadn’t received a reply.

Russian investigators haven’t publicly presented evidence to support their allegation against Gershkovich. Russia’s legal system offers few, if any, of the legal protections accorded in the U.S. and other Western countries. Acquittals in espionage cases are exceedingly rare.

Gershkovich, 32 years old, was arrested by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, while on a reporting assignment in Yekaterinburg, around 900 miles east of Moscow. He was accredited as a foreign correspondent by Russian authorities. He appeared last week in a Russian court to face a false accusation of espionage in a secret trial, as a senior Kremlin official told reporters that Moscow was open to the possibility of a prisoner-swap deal that would send him home. On Tuesday, the Yekaterinburg court said a lawyer for Gershkovich had appealed the court’s decision to extend his detention until Dec. 13.

“The Working Group concludes that these numerous violations of Mr. Gershkovich’s right to a fair trial and to due process...are of such gravity as to render his deprivation of liberty arbitrary,” the U.N. panel said in a 16-page document outlining its conclusions.

The Russian government didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The U.N. group also said that the conditions of Gershkovich’s detention violated international standards.

“The treatment of Mr. Gershkovich during court appearances, notably his confinement in a cage, have contributed to undermining the presumption of his innocence, by pre-emptively labeling him as a significant security risk” without justification, the working group said.

John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said last week that the proceedings against Evan were a “sham trial” and that Gershkovich was being used as a bargaining chip.

The Wall Street Journal