03/07/2024 (Agence Europe) – In a statement adopted in March but published on Tuesday 2 July 2024, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention condemns the lack of evidence against American Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested for spying in Russia on 29 March 2023. Russia claims espionage, but its decision is more likely linked to the American journalist’s coverage of the war in Ukraine, according to the working group’s statement, which was relayed by The New York Times. Evan Gershkovich’s trial began on Wednesday 26 June after he had been held for 15 months in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, as noted by Reporters Without Borders. The UN points to “the absence of a legitimate legal basis for his arrest and continued detention” as well as the lack of evidence to qualify his journalistic work as espionage. See the UN statement: https://aeur.eu/f/cx8 (FS)