WSJ journalist Evan Gershkowitz has had his detention extended on espionage charges.

The Lefortovo Court in Moscow extended the detention of The Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich until August 30. This is reported by "Caution News".

The meeting to extend the preventive measure was held behind closed doors.

The arrest of Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg became known on the morning of March 30. Soon, RIA Novosti, citing the FSB, reported that a case of espionage had been opened against the journalist (Article 276 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, he “was engaged in collecting information about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”

After his arrest, Gershkovich was transported to Moscow, where the Lefortovo court placed him in pre-trial detention center-2 "Lefortovo" for a month and 29 days - until May 29.

The journalist's colleagues consider the case to be fabricated. Thus, the founder of the Bellingcat publication Eliot Higgins and human rights activists of the Gulagu.net project suggested that the reason for the detention of the journalist was the potential opportunity to exchange him for prisoners from Russia in other countries.

On June 22, the Moscow City Court approved the arrest of Evan Gershkovich until August 30. TASS reports this with reference to a correspondent in the courtroom.

• On April 18, in Yekaterinburg, after a search, local resident Yaroslav Shirshikov, who was the first to tell about Gershkovich’s disappearance, was detained . Apparently, a case was opened against him under the article on justification of terrorism.
• Lawyer of the human rights organization “First Department” Evgeny Smirnov told “Vestka” that the Gershkovich case is the first case of espionage against a foreign journalist. “This has never happened in practice in Russia before. There were two charges of treason against Russian journalists - Grigory Pasko and Ivan Safronov. But for [a case of espionage to be opened] against a foreign journalist and for espionage, I think this is a new feature,” the human rights activist explained.