Family of Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Russia asks UN for help
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Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested on March 29 in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW YORK – The family of American journalist Evan Gershkovich said on Wednesday they had appealed to the United Nations for help in their bid to get him freed in Russia, where he was detained in March on spying charges
Standing with the United States’ Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield outside the UN Security Council, Gershkovich’s parents and sister said they had submitted a petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
“This petition explains that Evan’s detention is a violation of his human rights and that Russia should release him immediately. We just want him home,” Gershkovich’s father Mikhail told reporters.
The Working Group has a mandate from the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to investigate “cases of deprivation of liberty imposed arbitrarily or inconsistently with the international standards” by asking governments to clarify or bring attention to cases.
The US says Russia is using Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich to conduct “hostage diplomacy” at a time when Moscow’s war in Ukraine has plunged relations with Washington to their lowest point in more than 60 years.
“No family should have to watch their loved one being used as a political pawn,” Ms Thomas-Greenfield told reporters. “That’s exactly what President (Vladimir) Putin is doing. Russia’s actions are beyond cruel. And they are a violation of international law.”
Washington says the case against him is bogus and has demanded the release of both Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a US citizen convicted of espionage in 2020 and serving 16 years in a Russian penal colony on spying charges that he, too, denies.
Gershkovich was arrested on March 29 in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. No date has been set for his trial, and late in August, his detention in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison was extended by three months to Nov 30.
“Evan has now been wrongfully detained by Russia for nearly six months for doing his job as a journalist,” his mother Ella Milman told reporters.
“We are still in shock. Every day is a day too long, I miss him every day.” REUTERS
