INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A Moscow court on Tuesday denied U.S
journalist Evan Gershkovich's appeal against the extension of his pre-trial detention in the espionage case that he and American authorities
have rejected as false.Gershkovich, 32, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, has been in Moscow's notorious Lefortovo prison for more
than a year after he was arrested while on a reporting trip to Russia.He is the first Western journalist since the Soviet era to be arrested
government reject."The first court of appeal ruled that the order of 26 March 2024 on the extension of the preventative measure should be
left unchanged," judge Alexander Pushkin said in Tuesday's hearing, an AFP journalist reported from the court.The hearing was a technical
appeal against an earlier decision to keep Gershkovich in detention at least until June 30 pending a trial, it did not concern the merits of
wearing dark trousers, a white T-shirt and a dark shirt.He smiled and gave a thumbs-up when a reporter asked him how he was doing.Moscow has
not provided any public details of its case against Gershkovich, saying only that he was "caught red-handed" in the Urals city of
Yekaterinburg last March.Russia has said there are discussions behind the scenes on a possible prisoner exchange involving
Gershkovich.President Vladimir Putin has publicly implied Moscow would like to see the release of a man Germany says was working for the
Russian state when he killed a Chechen rebel commander as part of a deal to free Gershkovich.Washington has repeatedly accused Moscow of
citizens in a bid to use them as pawns to secure the release of Russians jailed abroad for serious crimes.
