Russian court to rule on US reporter Gershkovich after prosecutor seeks 18-year jail term

By Andrew Osborn and Mark Trevelyan

MOSCOW (Reuters) -A Russian court unexpectedly said on Friday it would pronounce its verdict in the espionage trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich within hours after state prosecutors demanded he be jailed for 18 years for spying.

Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American who denies any wrongdoing and says the allegations against him are false, went on trial last month in the city of Yekaterinburg. He is the first U.S. journalist arrested on spying charges in Russia since the Cold War.

Espionage cases often take months to handle and the unusual speed at which his trial has been held behind closed doors has stoked speculation that a long-discussed U.S.-Russia prisoner exchange deal involving him and other Americans detained in Russia may be in the offing.

The court hearing his case said in a statement it would deliver its verdict at 1200 GMT on Friday.

"The criminal espionage trial against The Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich has reached its final stage," it said.

"The court has examined all the materials of the criminal case, questioned witnesses and the defendant, held a debate among the lawyers, and heard the final statement of the defendant. After that, the judge left for the deliberation room for the verdict."

A Reuters reporter on the scene said that a state prosecutor had asked the judge in the case to convict Gershkovich and sentence him to 18 years in jail. The maximum sentence for the crime he is accused of is 20 years.

Russia usually concludes legal proceedings against foreigners before making any deals on exchanging them for Russians held abroad.

Prosecutors allege that Gershkovich gathered secret information on the orders of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency about a company that manufactures tanks for Russia's war in Ukraine.

Officers of the FSB security service arrested him on March 29, 2023, at a steakhouse in Yekaterinburg, 900 miles (1,400 km) east of Moscow. He has since been held in Moscow's Lefortovo prison.

Gershkovich, his newspaper and the U.S. government all reject the allegations and say he was merely doing his job as a reporter accredited by the Foreign Ministry to work in Russia.

(Reporting by Reuters;Editing by Angus MacSwan)