A Russian court docket has sentenced American journalist Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in jail after discovering him responsible of espionage in a closed-door trial, state media reported.
The 32-year-old Wall Avenue Journal correspondent has pleaded not responsible and his employer and the US have denounced the costs as trumped up.
Gershkovich was arrested on March 29, 2023 whereas on a fact-finding journey to the Ural Mountains metropolis of Yekaterinburg.
Prosecutors accused him of gathering secret details about Uralvagonzavod, a plant that makes tanks for Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, on orders from the Central Intelligence Company (CIA).
He’s the primary Western journalist to be arrested on espionage expenses in post-Soviet Russia.
Gerschkovich, his newspaper and the US authorities say he was merely doing his job, with accreditation from the Russian Overseas Ministry.
The prosecution had beforehand requested the Sverdlovsk Regional Courtroom in Yekaterinburg for a sentence of 18 years.
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