Evan Gershkovich appears in glass cage as espionage trial begins in Russia
Evan Gershkovich, the first American journalist to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War, went on trial Wednesday, appearing in a Russian courtroom’s glass cage with his head recently shaved, CNN reports.
Gershkovich, 32, was arrested while reporting for the Wall Street Journal, which he joined in January 2022, just weeks before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While many newsrooms subsequently pulled their reporters out of Russia, Gershkovich remained, covering the war and how it was changing life in the country.
He was arrested while on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg in March 2023 and later accused of spying for the CIA. Gershkovich, the US government, and the WSJ have vehemently denied the charges against him. Within two weeks of his arrest in March 2023, the US State Department designated him as wrongfully detained and called for his immediate release.
