(NewsNation) — The detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, was extended until Jan. 30, according to Russian news agencies.
Danielle Gershkovich, Evan’s sister, said the family has been able to exchange letters with her brother about once a week.
“Those are just a lifeline — supports him and us,” she said.
Danielle Gershkovich emphasized she and her family try to keep Evan updated on family news, but there’s also “a lot of sibling humor.”
“We’ve been talking about TV shows, we watch books he’s reading,” she said. “I can tell from the letters he works very, very hard to keep himself in good spirits, and I’m just so proud of him for that.”
She added that it’s “bittersweet” to see her brother on camera behind bars and she’s always watching to see if “he’s holding up okay.”
“I think that’s our first concern — is he looking healthy? Does he still have his spirits up? It’s always a bittersweet moment to see him on camera and see him behind bars or in that glass aquarium, as they call it, that he’ll stand in, but also to be able to see him, so it’s very mixed emotions,” Danielle Gershkovich said.
Authorities have said details of the criminal case against Evan Gershkovich are classified.
Paul Beckett, the assistant editor of The Wall Street Journal, emphasized Russian authorities could continue to extend the pretrial detention for up to a year or more, but they’re hoping U.S. authorities will bring him home soon.
“The system is pretty flexible, as you’d imagine. So, we’re just hopeful that the U.S. can find a way to persuade the Russians to return an innocent man to his family and to the newsroom. Long before it ever gets to that point. 250 days is 250 too many, and it’s time for him to come home,” he said.
Beckett added: “I think he works very hard at making sure that he is okay. And his extraordinary family offers him a huge amount of support and inspires all of us to do whatever we can to bring him home.”
Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March while on a reporting trip to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, about 1,200 miles east of Moscow. Russia’s Federal Security Service alleged that the reporter, “acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”
Gershkovich and the Journal deny the allegations, and the U.S. government has declared him to be wrongfully detained. Russian authorities haven’t detailed any evidence to support the espionage charges.
Gershkovich is the first American reporter to be charged with espionage in Russia since 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB. He is being held at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, notorious for its harsh conditions.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has said it will consider a swap for Gershkovich only after a verdict in his trial. In Russia, espionage trials can last for more than a year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.