(Moscow) Russian justice on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, keeping her in pre-trial detention at least until August 5, her employer, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty media outlet, told AFP (RFE/RL).
Aged 47, she was arrested in Russia in October 2023 during a private trip.
She is accused of not having registered as a “foreign agent”, an infamous term which imposes heavy administrative constraints on the persons or entities concerned.
According to RFE/RL, she is also accused of spreading “false information” about the Russian military, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Ms. Kurmasheva had appealed to the Supreme Court of Tatarstan, the region of Russia where she is detained, against the extension of her pre-trial detention until August 5, pronounced in May. The body thus rejected his request on Tuesday.
The journalist, who resided in Prague before her arrest with her husband and two teenage daughters, had gone to Russia to visit her sick mother on May 20, 2023 but was unable to leave, her American and Russian passports having been confiscated. confiscated. A few months later, she was arrested.
According to Russian media, the accusation of disseminating “false information” brought against her is linked to her participation in the publication of a book of testimonies of Russians opposed to the offensive in Ukraine.
Russia has launched a merciless crackdown on critics of the Kremlin and its offensive against Ukraine.
Washington also accuses Moscow of carrying out unjustified arrests of American citizens in order to exchange them for Russians detained in the West.
Another American journalist detained in Russia, Evan Gershkovich, was arrested in March 2023 while reporting and has since been detained in Moscow on espionage charges that he denies. He faces 20 years in prison at the end of his trial which will open on June 26 in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals.
Alsu Kurmasheva, who joined RFE/RL in 1998, works for her service in Tatar and Bashkir languages, covering these ethnic minorities in Russia inhabiting in particular Tatarstan and Bashkortostan (center), the Volga and the Ural regions .
