Jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich categorically denies espionage charges after arrest in Russia

JAILED journalist Evan Gershkovich has categorically denied all accusations against him after being charged with espionage in Russia.

The well-respected Wall Street Journal reporter, 31, was seized by secret police on spying charges last week.

But Putin’s spies have offered no evidence to support the allegations.

The WSJ has vehemently denied the charges and published an article on how 

His arrest was also strongly condemned by journalists globally who have been showing their support with the hashtag #IStandWithEvan on Twitter.

But Russian investigators have now formally charged Mr Gershkovich, alleging he carried out espionage in the interests of the United States.

Mr Gershkovich has categorically denied the charges, TASS news agency reported.

A source said: “He categorically denied all the accusations and stated that he was engaged in journalistic activities in Russia.”

Russia’s FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said on March 30 that it had detained the US reporter in the city of Yekaterinburg and had opened an espionage case against him for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex.

US President Biden and PM Rishi Sunak have called for his immediate release.

And MPs have warned Mr Gershkovich is a victim of “state hostage taking” designed to castrate US foreign policy.

Mr Gershkovich, described as a “esteemed, principled journalist”, is the first reporter for an American news outlet to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War.

The journalist was reportedly held at a restaurant and bundled into a car by plain-clothed officers with a sweater pulled over his head.

He later appeared in court in , where he pleaded not guilty to espionage.

Mr Gershkovich was seen being led into a van by guards from the Lefortovsky court in the Russian capital.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in jail.

Mr Gershkovich is a US citizen whose parents fled the Soviet Union.

He has lived in Moscow for six years working as a journalist and joined the WSJ in January 2022.

WSJ Editor in Chief Emma Tucker described Mr Gershkovich’s arrest as “completely unjust”.

She said: “Evan is a member of the free press who right up until he was arrested was engaged in newsgathering. Any suggestions otherwise are false.

“His sole purpose in his work is to capture issues occurring around the world and to shed light on them so that the public can make informed decisions about how to navigate the future.

“We continue to call for his immediate release.

“The unjust arrest of one of our own sits heavy with all of us, and I know for many there are lingering questions about what the Russian government’s actions mean for freedom of the press in the region.”

After relocating to Russia, Mr Gershkovich won awards for his work at The Moscow Times before joining the Agence France-Presse.

After joining WSJ early in 2022, he travelled to the Belarus-Ukraine border as Russia invaded Ukraine, making him the only US reporter who could see the first injured Russian forces being taken home.