A Russian court confirmed Monday that American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was convicted in a closed-door trial seen widely as retaliatory.
Kurmasheva, who works at VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, or RFE/RL in Prague, was sentenced Friday to six and a half years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian army, according to the website of the Supreme Court of Tatarstan.
“This secret trial and conviction make a mockery of justice — the only just outcome is for Alsu to be immediately released from prison by her Russian captors,” RFE/RL president and CEO Stephen Capus said in a statement. “It’s beyond time for this American citizen, our dear colleague, to be reunited with her loving family.”
The closed-door trial took place in the city of Kazan, where Kurmasheva has been jailed since October 2023. Kazan is about 500 miles, or 800 kilometers, east of Moscow.
Kurmasheva, an editor for RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir service, was initially accused of failing to register her American passport and failing to self-register as a so-called “foreign agent” as well as the charge of spreading false information about the military.
She traveled to Russia in May 2023 to care for her elderly mother. Authorities prevented her from leaving the country in June and confiscated her passports. Then, in October, she was taken into custody.
The journalist and her employer have consistently rejected the charges against her. The U.S. government has also called for her immediate release.
Kurmasheva is a dual U.S.-Russian national, but Russia has denied her U.S. consular access.
Court spokesperson Natalya Loseva confirmed to The Associated Press that Kurmasheva was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison in a case classified as secret, with no details available of the nature of the accusations against her.
Kurmasheva’s secret trial took place on the same day that American journalist Evan Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in Russian prison on espionage charges that he and the U.S. government vehemently deny.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow did not immediately reply to VOA’s emails requesting comment for this story.
In June, 19 media and press freedom groups called on the U.S. to do more to assist in Kurmasheva’s case.
In a joint letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, the organizations said that Kurmasheva’s arrest is “because she is a journalist and journalism is not a crime.
“Russia’s only motive for holding her is to trade her for one of their assets,” the letter added.
Media watchdogs say Russia has a dire record for jailing journalists, with 22 detained as of late 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Nearly all those in custody are foreign nationals.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
