ALBAWABA- Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested in Russia last month on espionage accusations, was denied an appeal to lift his detention.
Though the hearing was closed, Mr. Gershkovich would "assert his right for free journalism" and "defend himself," according to one of his lawyers, Maria Korchagina.
“Evan is wrongfully detained, and the charges of espionage against him are false,” the leaders of the Journal and Dow Jones, the paper’s publisher, said in a statement. “We demand his immediate release and are doing everything in our power to secure it.”
The judge denied his appeal to lift his pretrial detention and left him in Russian custody. The case marks one of Vladimir Putin's most significant attacks on press freedom, and US officials are concerned about the case signaling a more severe crackdown on independent news media outlets.
Mr. Gershkovich was caught on March 29 while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg and accused of espionage, a charge that the US and press freedom groups reject. The case is the first time that the Russian government has brought such serious charges against a journalist officially accredited by the country's own Foreign Ministry, and the first time a Western journalist in Russia has been charged with espionage since the Cold War. Putin's spokesman claims that Mr. Gershkovich was caught "red-handed" and signaled that the Russian president personally approved the arrest
