Russia court extends pretrial detention by 3 months for WSJ’s Gershkovich

A Russian court extended until at least Aug. 30 the pretrial detention of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter deemed by the U.S. to be wrongfully held, reports Ann Simmons of The Journal.

Simmons reports, “In a hearing before a judge at Lefortovo District Court in Moscow, investigators from the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, asked for Gershkovich to remain behind bars awaiting trial, state news agency TASS said.

“Gershkovich, 31 years old, was detained by agents from the 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.

“A U.S. citizen, Gershkovich has been kept in Lefortovo prison in Moscow since the end of March.”

Read more here.

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.