A Russian court has extended the pre-trial detention of U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested nearly a year ago on espionage charges widely viewed as bogus.
The court Tuesday ordered Gershkovich held until at least June 30, a three-month extension of an earlier order.
No date for his trial has been set.
The 32-year-old Gershkovich was arrested while on a reporting trip in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in March 2023.
Gershkovich and the newspaper have denied Russia’s spying allegations. Russia has not provided evidence to support the charges.
“He’s an innocent man, and we’re counting on the U.S. government to get him home,” Paul Beckett told VOA last week. Beckett is an assistant editor at the Journal and is leading the newspaper’s campaign to secure Gershkovich’s release.
The U.S. State Department also has declared Gershkovich wrongfully detained.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.