Official designation enables U.S. to press a foreign
government, unlocks other resources to free detainee
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been designated
as “wrongfully detained” in Russia by the U.S. State Department. WSJ explains
the criteria the State Department uses to determine wrongful detention, and
what it means for detainees’ release. Illustration: Jordan Kranse
By Vivian Salama and William Mauldin
Updated April 10, 2023 6:25 pm ET
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been
designated as “wrongfully detained” in Russia by the U.S. State Department. WSJ
explains the criteria the State Department uses to determine wrongful
detention, and what it means for detainees’ release. Illustration: Jordan
Kranse
The State Department on
Monday designated Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter
who was
arrested by Russian security services last month, as
”wrongfully detained,” launching a broad U.S. government effort to exert
pressure on Russia to free him.
Mr.
Gershkovich is held on an accusation of espionage that the Journal and the U.S.
government vehemently deny. His case now shifts to a State Department section
known as the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs,
which is focused on negotiating
for the release of hostages and other Americans
classified as wrongfully detained in foreign countries.
“Journalism
is not a crime,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said in a statement.
“We call for the Russian Federation to immediately release Mr. Gershkovich.”
The
department also called on Russia to release
another American, Paul Whelan, whom it has also
declared wrongfully detained. He was sentenced to serve 16 years in a Russian
penal colony and remains incarcerated. His family says the charges are bogus.
Russia’s embassy in
Washington and its mission to the United Nations didn’t immediately respond to
requests for comment.
Officials said the speed
at which the designation was reached was unprecedented, as it typically
involves a lengthy bureaucratic process that takes months. The designation
seldom comes before the detainee is able to meet with American consular
officials from the local embassy, a right Mr. Gershkovich has thus far been
denied.
“While this case has
moved at a record pace, it still took almost two weeks for our government to
make this determination. We must do more to streamline the process—especially
as it relates to journalists,” Eileen O’Reilly, president of the National Press
Club, and Gil Klein, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute,
said in a joint statement. “We believe it is always a wrongful detention when a
journalist is held for doing their job.”
They called on the State
Department’s hostage envoy to refer the case to the White House National
Security Council for a speedier resolution.
Lawyers representing Mr.
Gershkovich on behalf of the Journal reported
last week that
Mr. Gershkovich was in good health and grateful for the outpouring of support
from around the world, Emma Tucker, editor in chief of the Journal, said.
Even before the
determination was made, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had
“no doubt” that
Mr. Gershkovich had been wrongfully detained by Russia, adding that he stressed
that fact in a call with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, earlier
this month.
The Journal has
vehemently denied wrongdoing on the part of Mr. Gershkovich and has called for
his immediate release.
“We are doing everything
in our power to support Evan and his family and will continue working with the
State Department and other relevant U.S. officials to push for his release,”
Ms. Tucker and Almar Latour, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and
chief executive officer of Dow Jones & Co. Inc., said in a statement Monday
after the designation was announced.
“He is a distinguished
journalist and his arrest is an attack on a free press and it should spur
outrage in all free people and governments around the world.”
The White House has
labeled Russia’s accusation “ridiculous,” denied Mr. Gershkovich was a spy, and
said he had never worked for the U.S. government. In a joint statement Friday,
the Democratic and Republican leaders
of the Senate condemned Mr. Gershkovich’s detention and
demanded his release.
“He doesn’t belong
there. He needs to be released. He’s a journalist, not a criminal,” White House
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday. “And it doesn’t
mean that we aren’t going to continue to follow this case as closely as we can.
We still don’t have consular access and we’re also trying to get that.”
The “wrongfully
detained” determination unlocks other U.S. government resources to work on Mr.
Gershkovich’s case. It broadens the State Department’s authority to exert
pressure on Moscow, monitor intelligence, build diplomatic coalitions, exert
media pressure and fight for regular consular access.
The designation is
relatively rare: Some 99% of Americans held overseas face legal troubles in
which the U.S. doesn’t conclude that they are being held improperly.
A U.S. law codifies
wrongful detainees according to 11 parameters, including whether the person has
been arrested at least in part because of U.S. citizenship. Human-rights groups
count more than 50 Americans being wrongfully detained abroad in more than a
dozen countries, led by Iran and China. The government doesn’t disclose the specific
numbers of hostages or wrongfully detained Americans, “as the numbers are
fluid, and due to privacy concerns and the sensitivity of ongoing efforts to
secure the release of all U.S. nationals,” a State Department spokesman said.
Mr. Gershkovich, 31 years
old, was detained March 29 and accused of espionage while on a reporting trip
to the Russian provincial city of Yekaterinburg, about 800 miles east of
Moscow. He is the first
American journalist to be detained by Russian authorities since 1986, but
he is one of several Americans deemed wrongfully detained by Russia in recent
years.
He is accredited to work
as a journalist in Russia by the country’s Foreign Ministry.
Moscow claims that its
Federal Security Service, known as the FSB for its Russian initials, caught Mr.
Gershkovich “red-handed” but offered no evidence to back up the allegation or
offer cause for his arrest. Russia says it is acting in accordance with its own
laws.
Mr. Gershkovich is being
held at Russia’s Lefortovo Prison, a pretrial detention center run by the FSB.
FSB trials are typically conducted in secret, with little to no evidence shared
about a defendant’s case.
Mr. Gershkovich’s arrest
sparked global condemnation of Russia’s actions.
On Sunday, clergy around
the world included prayers for Mr. Gershkovich’s release in their Easter
sermons, and countless Jews set empty seats for him at their Passover seders
last week.
World
Bank President David Malpass said Monday that detention of Mr.
Gershkovich is a “brazen act” by the Russian government that violates freedom
of the press.
On Monday, editors at
six of Italy’s most widely read daily newspapers published an open letter to
the Russian ambassador to Rome condemning Mr. Gershkovich’s detention and
asking for his immediate release. The editors of Il Corriere
della Sera, La
Repubblica,
La Stampa, Il Messaggero, and
other papers said they were channeling widespread sentiment in Italy.
In December, women’s
basketball star Brittney Griner landed in the U.S. after being
released from a Russian penal colony as part of a prisoner exchange for a
Russian arms dealer—a deal brokered in part by the Office of the Special
Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. The
State Department had deemed her, too, wrongfully detained more
than 10 weeks after she was detained.
Ms. Griner had been
convicted of drug smuggling and possession over a small amount of hashish oil
found in her luggage at Moscow’s airport in February 2022. She was sentenced to
nine years in a penal colony.
In Ms. Griner’s case,
the Russian government delayed granting regular consular access, leaving her to
go months without seeing embassy representatives, U.S. officials said.
Write to Vivian Salama
at vivian.salama@wsj.com
No comments:
Post a Comment