A Russian court on Tuesday ordered that the pre-trial detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been held on accusations of espionage since March, be extended another three months.
He will be kept in custody until at least August 30, Russia state media outlet TASS reported.
The reporter’s pre-trial detention was supposed to expire on May 29, but investigators from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) successfully petitioned the judge in his case to prolong it.
“The court received a request from the investigation to extend the preventive measure in the form of detention against the accused until August 30. The court session has already begun,” the report from TASS said.
Credentialed by the Russian Foreign Ministry, Gershkovich was reporting on the Russian war effort from Moscow when he was detained on March 29 on charges of illegally obtaining “information constituting a state secret about the activities of an enterprise within Russia’s military-industrial complex.” Gershkovich had lived in Moscow for several years.
In April, the State Department formally designated Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained” in Russia, unlocking an array of resources that allows the U.S. to put further pressure on Russia to secure the journalist’s release.
“Today, Secretary Blinken made a determination that Evan Gershkovich is wrongfully detained by Russia,” the State Department said at the time. “Journalism is not a crime. We condemn the Kremlin’s continued repression of independent voices in Russia, and its ongoing war against the truth.”
The rarely used “wrongfully detained” designation, which means the U.S. considers Gershkovich to be a political hostage held on fabricated charges, moves his case to a section of the State Department called the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA).
In late March, President Joe Biden condemned his detainment and demanded the Kremlin “let him go.” He clarified to reporters at the time that the U.S. wasn’t planning any expulsion of Russian diplomats in retaliation.