Russian prosecutors introduced a significant step on Thursday of their case in opposition to Evan Gershkovich, the imprisoned American journalist, saying they’d finalized the espionage indictment in opposition to him and that he could be tried within the Russian metropolis of Yekaterinburg, the place he was arrested more than a year ago.
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, mentioned Yevgeny Smirnov, a Russian lawyer who has labored on comparable circumstances.
When such espionage circumstances go to trial in Russia, they often take about 4 months however can take as much as a 12 months, and they’re usually closed to the information media, Mr. Smirnov mentioned in a telephone interview. If convicted, Mr. Gershkovich faces as much as 20 years in jail.
The Russian authorities have instructed previously that they might be open to a prisoner swap for Mr. Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Road 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 said that Russian and American intelligence companies had been “in contact on this concern.”
“They completely need to be resolved on the premise of reciprocity,” Mr. Putin mentioned, 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 Conflict, highlighted the extent to which Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has broken relations between Moscow and Washington.
In a statement, prosecutors mentioned they’d decided that “below directions from the C.I.A.” and “utilizing painstaking conspiratorial strategies,” Mr. Gershkovich “was amassing secret data” a couple of manufacturing facility 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 in opposition to 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 in opposition to him. The U.S. authorities has designated Mr. Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained,” which successfully implies that it considers him a political prisoner.
In response to Mr. Smirnov, Russian safety providers decide what constitutes categorized materials and what doesn’t in such circumstances. The protection has no approach to problem their assertions, he mentioned.
“We perceive clearly that he’s in jail to get exchanged,” Mr. Smirnov mentioned in reference to Mr. Gershkovich. He added that relying on secret talks on any attainable prisoner change, the trial might 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 courtroom 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 conflict in Ukraine on social media.
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