Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will be held in a Moscow prison for another three months before his trial after he was arrested on spying charges

• US citizen Gershkovich was arrested while on a reporting trip to Russia in March

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershokovich, who was jailed in Russia on espionage charges which can carry up to 20 years in prison, has had his pre-trial detention extended to November 30.

Gershkovich arrived at court for a hearing to extend his arrest in a white prison van and was led handcuffed out of the vehicle wearing jeans, sneakers and a shirt. 

A 31-year-old United States citizen, Gershkovich was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip to Russia in late March. 

He will now spend at least three further months behind bars before he is given a trial, Interfax reports.

Gershkovich and his newspaper deny the allegations, and the US government declared him to be wrongfully detained. Hi colleagues have called for him to be returned home immediately.

Gershkovich arrived at court in a white prison van and was led handcuffed out of the vehicle wearing jeans, sneakers and a shirt

The prosecution had asked to extend his arrest from August 30. Gershkovich has appealed against the extensions to his detention

Journalists outside the court were not allowed to witness the proceedings, which Tass reports were held behind closed doors due to details of the criminal case being classified 

Russian authorities have not provided any evidence to support the espionage charges nor detailed what they might include.

Russia’s Federal Security Service have claimed that Gershkovich, ‘acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.’ 

Journalists outside the court were not allowed to witness the proceedings, which Tass reports were held behind closed doors due to details of the criminal case being classified.

The prosecution had asked to extend his arrest from August 30. Gershkovich has appealed against the extensions to his detention.

Earlier this month, US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy made her third visit to Gershkovich and reported that he appeared to be in good health despite challenging circumstances. 

Gershkovich was being held at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, notorious for its harsh conditions.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court in April

Gershkovich is the first American reporter to to face espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB.

Analysts have pointed out that Moscow may be using jailed Americans as bargaining chips in soaring US-Russian tensions over the Kremlin’s military operation in Ukraine. 

At least two U.S. citizens arrested in Russia in recent years – including WNBA star Brittney Griner – have been exchanged for Russians jailed in the US.

Russia’s ambassador to the US said this week that the channel between the two countries for prisoner swaps ‘has already proved its effectiveness’ when asked about his country’s appetite for such exchanges.

Last month, President Joe Biden told a news conference in Helsinki, Finland, that the US is interested in a possible prisoner swap.

‘I’m serious on a prisoner exchange,’ he said. ‘And I’m serious about doing all we can to free Americans being illegally held in Russia or anywhere else for that matter, and that process is under way.’

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