AFPC-USA Responds After Journalists Gershkovich, Kurmasheva, and Others Released in Prisoner Swap
On Thursday, August 1, the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the United States (AFPC-USA) published a statement in response to the news that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Alsu Kurmasheva are among the prisoners exchanged in Ankara, Turkey this morning. The Russian government also released United States Marine reservist Paul Whelan, who was arrested by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in December 2018, and Vladimir Kara Murza, the Russian-British political activist who received a 25-year sentence on charges of treason.
Kurmasheva was the second U.S. journalist detained in Russia last year, following the arrest of Gershkovich on espionage charges in March. In June, AFPC-USA joined 17 press freedom organizations, journalists associations and rights groups to pressure President Joe Biden and the United States government to officially recognize Kurmasheva as “wrongfully detained.” Gershkovich and his employer have denied the charges, and U.S. authorities have classified him as wrongfully detained. AFPC-USA has also spoken out against the Russian government, saying it “has failed to produce evidence of espionage.”
Uncorroborrated reports at the time of Whelan’s arrest alleged he was caught receiving a digital storage device containing a list of intelligence officials. Whelan was a civilian at the time; he had been dishonorably discharged by the USMC in 2008 over attempted larceny and other crimes. Kara Murza, who was initially arrested on charges of disobeying police orders only to later be charged with “discrediting” the Russian military received the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in recognition of the columns he continued to write while in captivity.
16 people in total were released from Russian custody in what has been described as the largest prisoner swap since the Cold War, an unprecedented action in the post-Soviet era.
The complete statement is below:
The AFPC is pleased to report that we have recently been told that Evan Gershkovich, (Wall Street Journal) Alsu Kurmasheva (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) editor) Paul Whelan, and Vladimir Kara Murza are among the prisoners exchanged in Ankara, Turkey this morning in the largest prisoner swap since the Cold War.
Following their sham trail on espionage charges, Russian courts sentenced Evan Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen who had spent 16 months in detention before being convicted and on July 19, 2024 was handed down a 16-year prison term. Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen, was held for more than nine months before she was convicted on July 19, 2024 on charges of spreading “fake” news about the Russian army, receiving a sentence of 6 1/2 years. They were used as pawns for Russia’s propaganda game and as tools to release a Russian assassin jailed in Germany as well as other prisoners from jails in the US and abroad.
The AFPC demands the end of Russia’s unlawful arrests and harassment of journalists in exile!
