Russia Sentences US Journalist Evan Gershkovich to 16 Years in Prison

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, shown in a Moscow courtroom in February, on Friday marked a year being detained in Russia on espionage charges. NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images

A Russian court convicted and sentenced Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on Friday after a secret espionage trial.

U.S. officials and the newspaper said the charges were false and Russia had wrongly detained the reporter.

Gershkovich, 32, has been jailed since he was arrested during a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains in March 2023.

Russian officials claimed he was spying for the CIA.

After Judge Andrei Mineyev finished reading the verdict, someone in the courtroom shouted, "Evan, we love you!" the Associated Press reported.