U.N. human rights experts say Russian authorities are arbitrarily detaining American journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been jailed in Russia for more than a year on espionage charges that are widely viewed as false.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in its opinion, released Tuesday, that the Russian government is detaining Gershkovich over unsubstantiated claims.
A correspondent with The Wall Street Journal, Gershkovich has been jailed in Russia since March 2023 on spying charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny. The U.S. State Department has also declared the 32-year-old wrongfully detained.
The Journal welcomed the working group’s determination.
“Evan’s wrongful detention is a flagrant violation of his fundamental human rights, and we commend the U.N. working group’s opinion reaffirming what we have known since his unjust arrest: Evan is being arbitrarily detained and should be released immediately,” the newspaper’s publisher, Almar Latour, said in a statement.
A closed-door trial of Gershkovich began on June 26 in Yekaterinburg, where Gershkovich was first detained. The Ural Mountains city is about 1,400 kilometers, or 870 miles, east of Moscow.
The next hearing is scheduled for August 13. Press freedom experts have warned that the trial will almost certainly be a sham.
Russian authorities have accused Gershkovich of “gathering secret information” about a Russian military tank manufacturer. But to date, Moscow has not publicly provided any evidence to substantiate the charges against Gershkovich, who was accredited by Russia’s foreign ministry to work in the country.
The U.S. mission to the United Nations also welcomed that the working group determined that Gershkovich’s jailing is illegal.
“I have been proud to stand with Evan’s family at the United Nations to demand Evan’s immediate release,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said in a statement. “Journalism is never a crime and Evan should never have been detained.”
Gershkovich is one of two American journalists currently jailed in Russia.
The second is Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian national who works at VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Kurmasheva, 47, has been jailed since October 2023 on charges of failing to self-register as a “foreign agent” and spreading what the Kremlin views as false information about the Russian military.
Kurmasheva and her employer reject the charges, which carry a combined sentence of up to 15 years behind bars.
Although the U.S. government has also called for Kurmasheva’s immediate release, press freedom groups have criticized the State Department for not declaring the journalist wrongfully detained. The State Department says it is still considering making the determination, which would open up additional resources to help secure Kurmasheva’s release.
The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.
Also on Tuesday, the U.N. working group determined that Guatemalan journalist Jose Ruben Zamora is arbitrarily detained by his country’s government.
The founder of the investigative outlet El Periodico, Zamora is currently serving a six-year jail sentence for alleged money laundering in a case that press freedom groups have condemned as politically motivated.
