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MOSCOW, May 26. The defense of Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent for the American newspaper Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in the Moscow bureau, accused of espionage, appealed against the decision to extend him measures of restraint in the form of arrest, reported in the Lefortovsky court of Moscow.
«The court received an appeal against the extension of Gershkovich's preventive measure in the form of detention,» the source said.
On Tuesday, Moscow's Lefortovo Court extended Gershkovich's arrest until August 30.
Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow once again rejected the US request for consular access to Gershkovich «in response to the non-issuance of visas to Russian journalists», adding that not a single hostile attack will go without a tough reaction .
On March 30, the Russian FSB announced that WSJ Moscow bureau correspondent Evan Gershkovich had been detained in Yekaterinburg on suspicion of spying for the US government.
According to the Russian intelligence service, the American collected information constituting a state secret «on the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.»
The Lefortovo Court of Moscow arrested him for two months. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Gershkovich was caught red-handed.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova emphasized that Gershkovich's activities in Yekaterinburg «have nothing to do with journalism.»