(19 Jul 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++PLEASE NOTE: AP IS OPERATING IN RUSSIA ACCORDING TO RUSSIAN RESTRICTIONS ON ALL REPORTING RELATED TO THE ONGOING MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Yekaterinburg, Russia – 19 July 2024
1. Wide of courtroom
2. US journalist Evan Gershkovich inside glass cage listening to verdict, UPSOUND (Russian) Andrei Mineyev, judge:
“Guided by Articles 307, 308 and 309 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, the court ruled: to find Evan Gershkovich guilty of committing a crime under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code and to sentence him to imprisonment for a term of 16 years to be served in a high-security correctional colony.”
3. Wide of Gershkovich, UPSOUND (Russian) Andrei Mineyev, judge:
“Gershkovich, do you understand the verdict? The imposed punishment, terms and procedure for appealing the verdict?”
Gershkovich nodding.
4. Mid of Gershkovich in glass cage
5. Close-up of Gershkovich in glass cage, UPSOUND (Russian) Andrei Mineyev, judge: “Do you have any questions about the verdict?”
Gershkovich: “No, your honor.”
Mineyev: “The court hearing is closed.”
6. Wide of Gershkovich waving, being led out by police UPSOUND (Russian) woman, no name given: “Evan, we love you!”
7. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Mikael Odzoyev, representative of prosecution:
“It is credibly established and documentally proven that American journalist of the Wall Street Journal newspaper Gershkovich, on instructions from the CIA, collected secret information on the activities of a defence enterprise AO NPK Uralvagonzavod for the production and repair of military equipment in the Sverdlovsk region in March 2023. Gershkovich carried out illegal actions with careful measures of secrecy. The Sverdlovsk Regional Court agreed with the position of the state prosecutor, Gershkovich is sentenced to 16-year imprisonment in a high-security prison.”
Reporter: “How satisfied are you with the court’s ruling?”
“A decision on verdict’s legitimacy will be taken after we receive and examine it.”
8. Various of lawyers in courtroom
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Ameer Kotecha, British Consul General in Yekaterinburg:
“I’m here today to demonstrate our solidarity, the solidarity of United Kingdom with Evan and to demonstrate our support for freedom of the press.”
10. Security officer talking to journalists UPSOUND (Russian) “The Sverdlovsk Regional Court has finished its work, I ask everyone to leave.”
11. Wide of court exteriors, people walking
STORYLINE:
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was convicted Friday of espionage and sentenced to 16 years on charges that his employer and the U.S. have rejected as fabricated.
The conclusion of his swift and secretive trial in the country’s highly politicized legal system perhaps cleared the way for a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.
When the judge in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court asked Gershkovich if he understood the verdict, he said yes.
Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg and accused of spying for the U.S., and has been behind bars ever since.
He was the first U.S. journalist taken into custody on espionage charges since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986, at the height of the Cold War. Gershkovich’s arrest shocked foreign journalists in Russia, even though the country has enacted increasingly repressive laws on freedom of speech after sending troops into Ukraine.
Closing arguments took place behind closed doors at the trial, where Gershkovich did not admit any guilt, according to the court’s press service.
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