YEKATERINBURG, Russia—Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was convicted Friday of espionage and sentenced to 16 years on charges that his employer and the U.S. have rejected as fabricated.
The conclusion of his swift trial perhaps cleared the way for a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.
When the judge in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court asked Mr. Gershkovich if he understood the verdict, he said yes.
Mr. Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 and was said to be on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. He was accused of spying for the U.S., and has been behind bars ever since.
He was the first U.S. journalist taken into custody on espionage charges since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986, at the height of the Cold War.
Closing arguments took place behind closed doors at the trial, where Mr. Gershkovich did not admit any guilt, according to the court’s press service.
Russian authorities claimed that he was gathering secret information for the U.S.—the first American journalist to be accused of espionage since the Cold War.
Mr. Gershkovich was in court for a second straight day Friday for the closed proceedings, where officials said prosecutors requested an 18-year sentence in a high-security prison.
Unlike the trial’s opening on June 26 in Yekaterinburg and previous hearings in Moscow in which reporters were allowed to see Mr. Gershkovich briefly before sessions began, there was no access to the courtroom on Thursday, but media was allowed in the court on Friday for the verdict.
“Evan’s wrongful detention has been an outrage since his unjust arrest 477 days ago, and it must end now,” the Journal said Thursday in a statement.
The U.S. State Department has declared Mr. Gershkovich “wrongfully detained,” committing the government to assertively seek his release.
Asked Friday about a possible prisoner swap involving Mr. Gershkovich, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday at the United Nations that Moscow and Washington’s “special services” are discussing an exchange involving Mr. Gershkovich. Russia has previously signaled the possibility of a swap, but it says a verdict would have to come first. Even after a verdict, any such deal could take months or years.
State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel on Thursday declined to discuss negotiations about a possible exchange, but said: “We have been clear from the get-go that Evan did nothing wrong and should not have been detained. To date, Russia has provided no evidence of a crime and has failed to justify Evan’s continued detention.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted earlier this year that he would be open to swapping Mr. Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence for the 2019 killing in Berlin of a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent.
Mr. Gershkovich has spent about 15 months in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison.
The Russian Prosecutor General’s office said last month the journalist is accused of “gathering secret information” on orders from the CIA about Uralvagonzavod, a plant about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Yekaterinburg that produces and repairs tanks and other military equipment.
Mr. Lavrov on Wednesday reaffirmed the Kremlin claim that the government has “irrefutable evidence” against Mr. Gershkovich.
Nine U.S. citizens known to be detained in Russia as tensions between the two countries have escalated over fighting in Ukraine.