Russia: Journalists Gershkovich and Kurmasheva’s sham trials and imprisonment a chilling warning to all journalists, say UN experts

GENEVA – Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s 16-year prison sentence on spurious espionage charges by a court in Yekaterinburg and a six-and-a-half year prison term on the same day imposed by a court in Kazan on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva on groundless charges of “spreading fake news about the Russian army”, send a threatening message to all journalists, UN human rights experts warned today. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, Mariana Katzarova, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, called yet again on the Russian authorities to immediately release the journalists and drop all charges against them. They issued the following statement:

“We are shocked by the sentencing of Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva for crimes they have not committed. Their only ‘crime’ was that they reported the news about Russia, including about the war against Ukraine. The rushed and secretive nature of their trials -- over three and two days respectively, and behind closed doors -- is yet another demonstration of the sham trials and convictions on fabricated charges of reporters who were just doing their job.

Evan Gershkovich, who has denied the charges and maintained his innocence, was sentenced to a lengthy prison term solely for carrying out his legitimate journalistic activities of gathering information and reporting on public affairs, including in relation to the war against Ukraine. He was arbitrarily arrested by the Russian Federal Security Service on 29 March 2023 and has spent 478 days in pre-trial detention at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, without the Russian authorities providing any evidence to substantiate the grave espionage charges against him. The court’s verdict -- after three days of closed-door hearings -- only confirms that the charges against the journalist were politically motivated to punish him for his reporting about the war against Ukraine.

It is particularly disturbing that an officially accredited journalist, a United States national, who has been operating in Russia for a number of years, was sentenced to 16 years of imprisonment in a closed trial on charges of espionage, which were never substantiated, in a first such case since the Cold War. We are concerned about the instrumentalisation and increased use of national security laws in Russia to unduly restrict freedom of expression, following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and effectively criminalising any independent journalism aimed at reporting on the war.

Similarly, Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual US-Russian citizen, was arrested on 18 October 2023 on charges of violating the law on “foreign agents” when she was visiting her elderly mother in Kazan. In December 2023, the authorities added an additional charge of “spreading fake news about the Russian army”. Like Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva was detained for her reporting at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and in particular her editing of the book Saying No to War - 40 Stories of Russians Who Oppose the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, published in November 2022.

Together with Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, at least 33 journalists are currently detained in Russia in a dangerous trend of intensifying the crackdown on independent media and dissenting voices since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva and all journalists in Russia detained solely for doing their job.

Furthermore, the Russian Federation government must repeal all legislation unduly restricting freedom of expression, such as ‘spreading fake news about the Russian army’ and ‘discrediting the Russian army’, as well as amend its criminal laws to prevent the instrumentalisation and abuse of national security laws to limit freedom of expression, particularly the activities of journalists seeking to truthfully report on the war against Ukraine.”