US journalist Evan Gershkovich’s secretive ‘sham’ trial in Russia nears end

I’m at the Sverdlovsk Regional Courthouse in Yekaterinburg, just metres away from Courtroom 5A where US journalist Evan Gershkovich is on trial.

The Wall Street Journal reporter, who’s 32, is facing espionage charges, rejected by him, his employers and the White House.

He’s the first Western journalist on trial for spying since the Cold War.

But I’ll be honest with you: I have little sense of what’s happening inside that room. Evan’s trial is being held behind closed doors.

That means no media, no friends and family, no diplomats, no members of the public allowed in.

The journalists here are having to rely on snippets through the day from the court press secretary:

“The court’s taking a 15-minute break.”

“The hearing has resumed.”

“The hearing is over for the day.”

When the hearing ends, the press secretary announces that proceedings will resume tomorrow, Friday, with closing arguments.

It feels like the end of this trial is near.

Evan Gershkovich’s employer has denounced this as a “sham trial”.

“This bogus accusation of espionage will inevitably lead to a bogus conviction for an innocent man who would then face up to 20 years in prison for simply doing his job,” The Wall Street Journal’s editor-in-chief Emma Tucker wrote last month.

Russian security services claim that Mr Gershkovich was gathering classified information about a Russian defence plant near Yekaterinburg and spying for the CIA.

Evan, his newspaper and the US government fiercely reject the accusation. The WSJ has accused Russia of “stockpiling Americans” to trade them for Russians jailed abroad.