YEKATERINBURG, Russia (AFP) — US reporter Evan Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian penal colony on Friday for “espionage”, a verdict reached after three weeks of secretive hearings condemned by Washington as a sham.

Russia has a policy of not exchanging prisoners internationally unless they have already been convicted, potentially paving the way for Gershkovich to be swapped in a deal.

The 32-year-old, who pleaded not guilty, became the first journalist in Russia to be charged with spying since the Cold War when he was detained in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in March 2023.

Gershkovich was sentenced to “punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 16 years in a strict regime colony,” Judge Andrei Mineyev said, announcing the verdict as the reporter stood in a glass cage.

The United States government and his employer, The Wall Street Journal, say the charges against him are false and believe he is being held as a “bargaining chip” to secure the release of Russians convicted abroad.

His trial has moved rapidly since the first hearing in late June, with the prosecution and defence teams giving their final arguments on Friday.

Other similar cases in Russia have dragged on far more slowly with several weeks or even months between hearings.

When asked Friday, the Kremlin refused to be drawn into speculation about the prospect of a prisoner swap.

– Talks ongoing –
The Kremlin has provided no public evidence for the spying allegations against Gershkovich, saying only that he was caught “red-handed” spying on a tank factory in the Urals region and was working for the CIA.

The prosecutor said Friday that Gershkovich acted with “careful measures of secrecy”.

Tensions are running extremely high between the countries over Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine.

Moscow and Washington have both said they are open to exchanging the reporter in a deal, but neither has given clues on when that might happen.

Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that talks between US and Russian special services over possible prisoner exchanges were ongoing, without naming any specific individuals.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has implied he wants to see the release of Vadim Krasikov, a Russian convicted in Germany of killing a Chechen separatist commander. German judges said it was an assassination orchestrated by Russian authorities.

Among other US nationals detained in Russia are reporter Alsu Kurmasheva and ballerina Ksenia Karelina, who are both dual US-Russian citizens, and former US marine Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year sentence for spying.

– ‘Arbitrary’ detention –
The US-born son of Soviet emigres raised in New Jersey, Gershkovich had reported from Russia since 2017, still returning for reporting trips following Russia’s Ukraine offensive.

In Moscow’s isolated Lefortovo prison, he communicated with friends and family in hand-written letters that revealed he had not lost hope about his situation.

At his first trial hearing on June 26, he spoke briefly to greet journalists and appeared smiling and cheerful, while revealing that his head had been fully shaven, as it was on Friday.

The Wall Street Journal has called the accusation against Gershkovich bogus, saying he never worked for the US government and was arrested for “simply doing his job”.

A United Nations working group this month stated that Gershkovich’s detention on spying charges was “arbitrary” and called for his immediate release.

“Evan has never been employed by the United States government. Evan is not a spy,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said last month.

The White House has warned US citizens still in Russia to “depart immediately” due to the risk of wrongful arrest.