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11 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has affirmed this Tuesday that the imprisonment in Russia of the journalist of ‘The Wall Street Journal’ Evan Greshkovich, is “out of place” and is a “totally illegal” detention.
“We are making it very clear that what is happening is totally illegal,” Biden said before boarding Air Force One en route to Belfast, where he is scheduled for a two-day official visit to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Friday Agreements. Holy.
The US president has assured in statements to the press that he tried to speak to the journalist’s family the day before and that he will try again throughout the day, the US network reported.
The State Department already branded this case Monday as an “unfair imprisonment.” In this way, Washington’s position implies that the espionage charges against him are unfounded and authorizes the official US organizations to explore all avenues to achieve his release.
Thus, the informer’s detention will be managed by the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, in the same way that the cases of Trevor Reed and Brittney Griner were, both considered cases of unjust imprisonment.
Russian authorities detained Gershkovich at the request of the Lefortovo court, in the city of Yekaterinburg. The journalist had been gathering information about the Wagner Group, owned by oligarch Yevgeni Prigozhin, considered a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and which has sent mercenaries to Ukraine.
The last article by the journalist, who faces a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison, was published by ‘The Wall Street Journal’ and dates from March 28 under the headline ‘Russia’s economy is beginning to unravel’.
Gershkovich previously worked for the French news agency AFP and the Russian newspaper ‘The Moscow Times’. Likewise, he has published in ‘The New York Times’, ‘The Economist’, ‘MIT Technology Review’, ‘Foreign Policy’ and Politico Europe, among other media, according to his website.
