ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Skip to main content

Lawyers meet with jailed American reporter in Moscow prison

Share

Lawyers representing an American reporter arrested in Russia on spying charges met with him in a Moscow prison on Tuesday for the first time since his detention last week and said "his health is good," according to his employer, The Wall Street Journal.

Evan Gershkovich, 31, was arrested Thursday in Yekaterinburg, Russia's fourth-largest city. He is the first U.S. correspondent since the Cold War to be detained on espionage accusations. The Journal has denied the charges.

"Evan's health is good, and he is grateful for the outpouring of support from around the world. We continue to call for his immediate release," the Journal's editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, said in a note to the newsroom Tuesday. She said the paper was encouraged by the visit.

Gershkowich's family, she said, "are relieved to know we finally have contact with Evan."

The reporter is being kept behind bars for two months pending an investigation. Moscow's Lefortovsky District court said Monday that it had received an appeal against Gershkovich's arrest filed by his defense, according to Russian news agencies. No date for a hearing on the appeal has been set.

Gershkovich is in Moscow's Lefortovo prison. A Russian state prison monitor said Monday that Gershkovich was in a quarantine cell while undergoing medical checks, was reading a book from the prison library, and had access to a TV, radio and refrigerator. The prison monitor, Alexei Melnikov, didn't say when he saw Gershkovich, but said he was cheerful. That report couldn't be independently verified.

Russia's Federal Security Service, of FSB, the top successor to the Soviet-era KGB, accused Gershkovich of trying to obtain classified information about a Russian arms factory.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday that the Biden administration was pressing hard for Gershkovich's release. "It's got attention all the way up to the Oval Office in terms of how we can get him home," Kirby told reporters in Washington.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged his Russian counterpart Sunday -- during a rare phone call between the diplomats since the start of the Ukraine war -- to release Gershkovich immediately, as well as another imprisoned American, Paul Whelan.

CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.

For the last seven-and-half months, Toronto resident Heather McArthur has been living out what she describes as her 'worst nightmare.' On Feb. 7, her then three-year-old son Jacob along with his father Loc Phu 'Jay' Le departed for what was supposed to be a week-long visit to Vietnam to celebrate the Lunar New Year with family, McArthur says.

Local Spotlight

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.

A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.