A Moscow court on Friday extended the detention of American reporter Evan Gershkovich for two months.
“The period of detention of Evan Gershkovich… is extended by two months… until March 30,” the court said on the messaging app Telegram.
Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was arrested during a reporting trip at the end of March last year in the city of Yekaterinburg.
He could spend up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Gershkovich, his employer and the U.S. government have rejected the spying charges, the first to be leveled against a foreign journalist since the Soviet era.
The American, who previously worked for The Moscow Times, continued to report from Russia after the Kremlin launched war against Ukraine, despite many Western journalists leaving the country.
Russia claims it caught Gershkovich “red-handed,” but has not provided any public evidence of the allegations it has made against him.
He has been held at Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison.
