Russia asks to extend pretrial detention of WSJ’s Gershkovich

Russian authorities requested an extension of the pretrial detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, deemed by the U.S. to be wrongfully held in Russia, report Kate Vtorygina and Ann Simmons of The Journal.

Vtorygina and Simmons report, “Gershkovich, a 31-year-old U.S. citizen, was detained by agents from the Federal Security Service, or FSB, while on a reporting trip in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on March 29. He is being held on an allegation of espionage that he, the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny.

“His pretrial detention was initially set to expire on May 29, but was prolonged to Aug. 30 following an earlier request from the FSB.

“On Wednesday, the FSB put forward a request to further extend Gershkovich’s pretrial detention by an unspecified length of time.”

Read more here. A hearing will be held Thursday.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.