Lawyers for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich were granted permission to visit the jailed journalist on Tuesday, nearly a week after he was detained in Russia on espionage charges.
While Russian law mandates that defense lawyers must be allowed regular contact with defendants, it’s not uncommon for Russian authorities to make communication as difficult as possible. According to the Wall Street Journal, lawyers for Gershkovich finally learned they would be allowed to visit their client at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison Tuesday afternoon.
Gershkovich — who covers Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union for the WSJ — was detained on Thursday in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, about 800 miles east of Moscow. The Federal Security Service, an agency that replaced the KGB, alleged the reporter engaged in “espionage in the interests of the American government,” noting he was caught “red-handed” by Russian authorities.
It marked the first time since the Cold War that a U.S. correspondent has been detained on spying accusations, all of which the Journal “vehemently denies.”
During an initial hearing last week, Moscow’s Lefortovsky District court ruled that Gershkovich would be kept behind bars for two months pending the investigation. He was represented by a court-appointed attorney at the time, the Journal said, after a lawyer seeking to represent him was blocked from entering the courtroom.
His own legal team has since filed an appeal of his arrest.
On Monday, a Russian state prison monitor said Gershkovich was being held in a quarantine cell while he underwent medical checks. He was reading a book from the prison library at the time of the check-in and had access to a TV, radio and refrigerator.
“At the time of the visit, he was cheerful. During the conversation there were a lot of jokes,” Moscow-area prison monitor, Alexei Melnikov said, adding that the reporter did not have any complaints about conditions at the priso.
The Wall Street Journal said it was unable to verify the prison monitor’s report.