19/07/2024 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE General Rapporteur for political prisoners, Thórhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (Iceland, SOC), has reacted to today’s judgment of a court in Yekaterinburg, sentencing a journalist of the Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovich, to 16 years’ imprisonment on fabricated espionage charges.
“I was outraged, albeit not surprised, to hear about Mr Gershkovich’s conviction and sentencing. Russian courts have already accustomed us to their role being limited to issuing formal approvals of orders coming from the Kremlin. The case of Mr Gershkovich is, however, particularly deplorable. His conviction comes after a trial that the international community consistently denounced as a sham, with the Russian authorities not having produced a shred of evidence against him. There is no doubt in my mind that his prosecution was politically motivated and I call on the Russian authorities to immediately release him.
The Assembly will continue to speak up for political prisoners in Russia and in Belarus until such time as they are released and those responsible for their unlawful persecution face justice themselves.”