Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Russia, is predicted to look in court docket.

The Wall Street Journal reporter charged with espionage in Russia is predicted to look in a Moscow court docket on Tuesday for a listening to to attraction his pre-trial detention, a case that has introduced relations between the United States and Russia to a brand new low.

The reporter, Evan Gershkovich, 31, was arrested by Russian safety providers in late March and formally charged with espionage. The Journal and the Biden administration vehemently deny the accusations and have referred to as for his quick launch.

Mr. Gershkovich will seem in individual in Moscow City Court, in accordance with Zona Media, a Russian news web site, citing the court docket’s spokesman. The listening to is predicted to happen behind closed doorways.

The court docket may permit Mr. Gershkovich to be moved to accommodate arrest, however such a step gave the impression to be extraordinarily unlikely given the gravity of the costs in opposition to him. If convicted, Mr. Gershkovich faces as much as 20 years in a Russian penal colony.

The listening to comes a day after the U.S. ambassador in Moscow met with Mr. Gershkovich on the Lefortovo Prison in Moscow. It was the primary consular go to since he was detained and adopted repeated calls from the State Department for Russia to grant entry to him.

“He is in good health and remains strong,” Lynne M. Tracy, the ambassador, stated in a temporary assertion posted on Twitter. “We reiterate our call for his immediate release.”

Also Monday, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, condemned Mr. Gershkovich’s detention in an announcement made on behalf of dozens of nations. “We urge Russian Federation authorities to release those they hold on political grounds, and to end the draconian crackdown on freedom of expression, including against members of the media,” she stated.

Mr. Gershkovich’s case, the primary time a Western journalist in Russia has been charged with espionage because the Cold War, has prompted an outpouring of assist from Mr. Gershkovich’s colleagues and press freedom teams.

The State Department final week designated Mr. Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained,” which implies that the U.S. authorities sees him because the equal of a political hostage held on fabricated prices. It additionally displays a priority amongst U.S. officers that Mr. Gershkovich’s case seems to sign an much more extreme Kremlin crackdown on impartial news media retailers and the free move of knowledge throughout the nation.

While the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, has repeatedly claimed that Mr. Gershkovich was caught “red-handed,” the Russian authorities haven’t offered any proof to again up their accusations.

A son of Soviet Jewish émigrés, Mr. Gershkovich was detained on March 29 whereas on a reporting journey within the metropolis of Yekaterinburg and transferred to Moscow, the place a district court docket formally arrested him. A Moscow court docket positioned Mr. Gershkovich into pretrial detention till May 29, in accordance with the Tass news company, though that time period is prone to be prolonged.