Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter imprisoned in Russia more than a year ago, is being held over unsubstantiated claims of espionage and should be immediately released, a United Nations panel has said.
Dow Jones, the publisher of the newspaper, submitted a request to the UN working group on arbitrary detention last September asking it for a formal opinion on Gershkovich’s imprisonment.
Presenting its findings on Tuesday, the body concluded that Russia had failed to refute the argument that its espionage charges were intended to punish Gershkovich, 32, for his journalistic work.
“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 panel said, which is made up of lawyers and legal scholars appointed by the UN human rights council.
“Gershkovich’s arrest was … in fact designed to punish his reporting on the armed conflict.
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“Consequently, it lacked a legal basis and is arbitrary.”
The American, who is the first western journalist to be charged with spying by Moscow since the Cold War, appeared briefly in a court in Yekaterinburg last week as he prepared to stand trial.
He, his employer and the US government all reject the charges and say that he was simply doing his job as a reporter. The Wall Street Journal, which is owned by News Corp, the parent company of The Times and The Sunday Times, has said that Moscow is “stockpiling Americans” in Russian jails to be traded for Russians imprisoned abroad.
Gershkovich was detained by FSB officers while on a reporting trip in the Ural mountains in March 2023. Russian officials have said he was caught “red-handed” trying to obtain “secret information” on behalf of the CIA about Uralvagonzavod, a tank factory in the region, but have provided no evidence of his guilt nor any information about the scope of the trial.
• I was locked up like Evan Gershkovich. This is what the West must do
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Acquittals on criminal charges are almost unheard of in Russian courts and he is widely expected to be convicted, with a possible sentence of up to 20 years in jail.
The trial is closed to the public, as is common in espionage and spying cases in Russia, making it illegal for the press to publish any evidence or testimony that is heard in the case.
“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 panel said.
The UN 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 labelling him as a significant security risk” without justification, the working group said.
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According to Russian state media, his next hearing will be on August 13.
