The U.S. ambassador visits Evan Gershkovich, a WSJ reporter detained in Russia.

The U.S. ambassador to Russia met Friday with Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter jailed in Moscow, a couple of days after his household appealed to the United Nations for assist in bringing him dwelling.

The U.S. embassy in Russia confirmed the go to by Ambassador Lynne M. Tracy, which was the fourth time she had met with Mr. Gershkovich since he was detained by the Russian authorities in March.

“He remains strong and is keeping up with the news — including his parents’ appearance at the U.N. this week,” the embassy mentioned in a press release on social media.

Mr. Gershkovich’s household on Wednesday had urged world leaders who will quickly be attending the U.N. General Assembly to affix the decision for his launch.

“Next week, world leaders will gather here to discuss many important issues,” Mr. Gershkovich’s father, Mikhail, mentioned in New York. He referred to as on these leaders to face together with his son, who he mentioned represented “the basic right to free press and freedom of expression” — rights which are “bedrock principles of the United Nations.”

Lawyers filed a petition on Tuesday asking a bunch of U.N. consultants to aspect with the American authorities and agree that Evan Gershkovich was being arbitrarily detained by Russia in violation of his human rights, the household mentioned.

The petition was submitted to the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a panel of 5 human rights and worldwide legislation consultants. The group has beforehand evaluated the detentions of a number of journalists, together with the Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who spent 544 days imprisoned in Iran earlier than he was launched in a prisoner swap in early 2016.

The U.N. group doesn’t have any enforcement authority, however its willpower that Mr. Gershkovich is being arbitrarily detained would additional elevate stress on Russia, already remoted from the West, to free him.

Ms. Tracy final met with Mr. Gershkovich in mid-August. American officers have mentioned that their Russian counterparts are blocking them from getting common consular entry to Mr. Gershkovich, the primary American journalist arrested on an espionage cost in Russia because the finish of the Cold War. The United States authorities considers him wrongfully detained and, together with The Journal, has categorically denied the accusations towards him.

Mr. Gershkovich’s pretrial detention will prolong not less than till Nov. 30, a Moscow courtroom dominated final month after a secret continuing that was closed to the news media. That courtroom is scheduled to listen to an enchantment of that pretrial detention extension on Tuesday, based on The Journal.

The Kremlin has acknowledged that Russia may very well be open to a prisoner swap for Mr. Gershkovich.

Edward Wong contributed reporting.