US Designates Wall Street Journal Reporter as ‘Wrongfully Detained’ in Russia, Stepping Up Effort to Free Him
thewrap.comState Department said in a statement. “We condemn the Kremlin’s continued repression of independent voices in Russia, and its ongoing war against the truth.”“We call for the Russian Federation to immediately release Mr.
Gershkovich,” the statement said.Gershkovich, 31, was arrested March 29 in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip.
Russia’s Federal Security Bureau, a successor to the Soviet KGB, accused Gershkovich of trying to obtain classified information on behalf of the U.S.
government, stating that “acting on the instructions of the American side, [he] collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”Gershkovich was taken to Moscow and appeared in court with a state-sponsored defense attorney on March 30, where he pleaded not guilty.The Journal reported Tuesday that with the declaration that Gerskovich was wrongfully detained, his case now shifts to a State Department section known as the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, “which is focused on negotiating for the release of hostages and other Americans classified as wrongfully detained in foreign countries.”Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that he didn’t understand what changes the designation might bring, The Journal reported. “What it means — I don’t know,” he said. “The United States could and should protect the rights of its citizen who was caught red-handed [and] violated the relevant laws of the Russian Federation.
Read more on thewrap.com