Evan Gershkovich sentenced to 16 years in Russian penal colony on espionage charges

LONDON -- Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been sentenced to 16 years in a Russian penal colony on charges of espionage after a guilty verdict was announced in the American journalist's trial on Friday.

The State Prosecutors Office in Russia sought a sentence of 18 years. Gershkovich had faced up to 20 years in prison, based on the charges.

In a joint statement, Dow Jones CEO and Wall Street Journal Publisher Almar Latour and Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Emma Tucker called the verdict a "disgraceful, sham conviction" for a correspondent who was "doing his job as a journalist."

"We will continue to do everything possible to press for Evan's release and to support his family," the statement said. "Journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until he's released. This must end now."

The trial moved to closing arguments early Friday morning after only two days of hearings in a case Gershkovich's newspaper and the United States had denounced as a sham. That exceptional speed had prompted speculation that Russia may be hurrying to convict Gershkovich in order to conduct a prison exchange that may have been agreed.

Russia has preferred in the past to only trade people once they have been convicted. However, the State Department on Thursday said it doesn't have any assessment of why the trial was moved up so quickly.

Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American, has spent more than a year in Russia detention since he was arrested on espionage charges that the Wall Street Journal and the United States say are fabricated. Gershkovich's trial began in June with a one-day hearing behind closed doors in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, a city about 900 miles from Moscow.

After just two days of hearings on Thursday, the court announced it had completed considering all the evidence and that closing arguments would now be heard on Friday. After that, Gershkovich had been expected to be asked for his "final statement" before the court considered its verdict, a spokesman for the court said.

The process moved exceptionally fast for an espionage trial, which under normal circumstances can take months or even years to reach a verdict.

Gershkovich was arrested by Russia's FSB intelligence agency while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg in March last year. The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. and dozens of international media organisations have denied the charges against him.

The U.S. accused Russia of seizing Gershkovich and a number of other Americans as hostages, using sham charges with the goal of exploiting them as a political bargaining chips. In recent years Russia has arrested several U.S. citizens, including WNBA star Brittney Griner, before trading them for Russians imprisoned in western countries on serious charges.

Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have publicly signalled Russia wants to trade Gershkovich. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this week again confirmed negotiations for an exchange have continued with the Biden administration.

"The intelligence services of the two countries, by agreement between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden back in June 2021, have been in contact to see if someone can be exchanged for someone else," he said.

Gershkovich's trial was held in secret and Russian authorities never presented their evidence publicly to support the charges against him. Russian prosecutors charged him with gathering secrets on the "production and repair of military equipment" for the CIA, a claim his newspaper has denied as a "transparent lies," saying Gershkovich was doing his job as a reporter.

"Evan's wrongful detention has been an outrage since his unjust arrest 477 days ago, and it must end now," the Journal said in a statement prior to the verdict. "Even as Russia orchestrates its shameful sham trial, we continue to do everything we can to push for Evan's immediate release and to state unequivocally: Evan was doing his job as a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Bring him home now."

Thursday's hearing lasted for more than five hours, with a few short breaks, according to reporters sitting outside the courtroom. A local news outlet It's My City reported that only one witness appeared in court Thursday, Vyacheslav Vegner, a lawmaker from Putin's ruling United Russia party in Sverdlovsk's regional parliament, who has previously said he gave an interview to Gershkovich before his arrest.

Vegner told the local website 66.ru that Gershkovich at the time had asked him about public support for Russia's war in Ukraine, the activities of the Wagner mercenary group and how the Sverdlovsk region's industrial enterprises were being repurposed.

Vegner on Thursday told Interfax that he had been questioned in court by the prosecution and defense for about a half-hour.

The Biden administration has said it is negotiating with Russia to try to free Gershkovich and another American, former Marine Paul Whelan, who has spent more than five years imprisoned by Russia on espionage charges the U.S. also says are fabricated. Russia freed Griner in exchange for the arms trafficker Viktor Bout, and another former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed was traded for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot convicted in the U.S. on drug smuggling charges.

Another American journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, a reporter for the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has also spent 9 months in detention in Russia on charges relating to her coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Roger Carstens, the U.S. State Department's special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, this week said that both Gershkovich and Whelan would make it back to U.S. soil one day, but he couldn't say when.

"The U.S. government is going to bring both of them home," he said, speaking at the annual Aspen Security Forum. "And when we go into negotiation with the Russians, we are intent on something that brings both people home."

Sen. Ben Cardin, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Friday condemned the sentence handed down in Russia to Gershkovich, and called on the international community to share in the condemnation and demand his freedom.

"The sham trial and 16-year sentence are stark reminders of the lengths to which tyrants like Putin will go to leverage innocent people as bargaining chips, stifle free speech, and suppress the truth," Cardin said in a statement.

Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum on Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked whether Russia might be willing to cut a deal for the release of Gershkovich or Whelan.

"Any effort to bring any American home is going to be part of a process of back and forth discussion," Blinken responded. "Depending on what the other side is looking for, they'll reach their own conclusions about whatever their needs are and we can bring someone home. I don't think that's dependent on an election in the United States or anywhere else."

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking at the same forum Friday, said the White House would make "every effort" to get Gershkovich and Whelan released.

"All I can tell you is we are laser focused on this," Sullivan said.

ABC News' Joe Simonetti, Mike Levine, Shannon Kingston and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.