The Moscow City Court approved the extension of the arrest until the end of August of WSJ journalist Gershkovich in a case of espionage.
Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg on March 30 and arrested for two months in a case of espionage and collecting information constituting a "state secret." The journalist faces up to 20 years in prison. The Kremlin claims the journalist was caught red-handed, but no evidence has been provided. The Wall Street Journal denies the allegations.
In April, the head of the RT television channel, Margarita Simonyan , offered to exchange Gershkovich, as well as the American Paul Whelan and Vladimir Kara-Murza , convicted of treason, for the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange:
“Change Whelan, Kara-Murza and Gershkovich for Assange. Less than three, they won't give it back. Save one useful life at the cost of three harmful ones.
Read more about the practice of taking foreign hostages for subsequent exchange in The Insider's article “Catch and Exchange. How the FSB hunts for foreigners.
The Insider supports the demands of colleagues – independent media and journalists – to release Gershkovich and also considers the charges against him unfounded.