Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands as he listens to the verdict in a glass cage at Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday. AP Photo

Bowdoin College alum Evan Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum-security Russian prison Friday on what his employer and the U.S. government have decried as false espionage charges.

Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who graduated from Bowdoin in 2014, was convicted after a secret, three-day trial in Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Russia for allegedly gathering secret information for the U.S., The Associated Press reports. The conviction comes more than a year after the 32-year-old was arrested while on a reporting trip in the country. The U.S. government has condemned the charges as politically motivated.

At Bowdoin, Gershkovich majored in philosophy and wrote occasionally for The Bowdoin Orient, the student newspaper. After he graduated in 2014, he went on to pursue a career in journalism and landed at the Wall Street Journal in 2022. He had been living and reporting in Russia for several years prior to his arrest.

In a joint statement Friday, Wall Street Journal leaders called it a “disgraceful, sham conviction.”

“We will continue to do everything possible to press for Evan’s release and to support his family. Journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until he’s released. This must end now,” Publisher Almar Latour and Editor in Chief Emma Tucker wrote.

Bowdoin said in a statement Friday that the college “continues to hope for Evan’s early release and an end to this nightmare for him, his family, and his many friends.”

BOWDOIN COMMUNITY OUTRAGED

Henry Laurence, a Bowdoin College professor of government and Asian studies, said that the Bowdoin community was “outraged and appalled” at what he described as a clear act of state kidnapping, and that many were concerned for Gershkovich’s wellbeing.

“The entire trial has been a travesty, as the complete absence of publicly presented evidence against Evan demonstrates, and the sentence would be ridiculous if it were not so terrifying,” Laurence wrote in an email. “However, we take enormous pride in the dignity and strength he has shown throughout the ordeal and will continue to work for this injustice to be undone.”

He said he could not speak further about the direct impact of Gershkovich’s recent conviction on the academic community because he is currently out of the country.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is escorted from a court hearing in Moscow on Jan. 26, 2024. AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File

Robeson Amory, a rising junior at Bowdoin College, said he is dismayed by the conviction.

“Reading the news of the sentencing process this morning was shocking,” Amory said. “I can’t imagine how hard this is for Evan and his family … I hope that the U.S. can find a way to bring him home.”

Bowdoin Professor Reed Johnson, a Russian and Eurasian studies lecturer, said that he first met Gershkovich through a career panel for students at the school. He was not surprised by the outcome of the trial, but said he was thinking of Gershkovich and his family.

“This conviction is just a tragic event, and not an entirely unexpected one,” Johnson said. “I think that pretty much anyone who’s been watching this case or following this general trajectory of Russian society for the last 20 years sort of understood from the beginning that this case was going to end in some kind of conviction. In fact, even calling it a ‘case’ and calling the ‘court’ a court without air quotes seems a little disingenuous because Russia has no independent judiciary. And in high profile cases like this, this verdict is almost always a forgone conclusion.”

Gershkovich will be sent to a prison in Russia’s penal colony system, the Wall Street Journal reported, though it is unclear which one.

Mike Van Itallie, a friend of Gershkovich’s from Bowdoin and high school, said he thinks the prison Gershkovich will be sent to will likely have relatively better conditions than he experienced at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison. where he was held before the trial.

“I think we all sort of knew this was coming, and in some ways it’s sort of a relief to be done with it … a little faster than expected,” Van Itallie said. “The conditions where he was in Lefortovo over the last 16 months (were) really inhumane, really isolating. … And I hope and expect that he’ll at least have more social interaction, be able to get some more fresh air. I think those are big factors in his well-being.”

Evan Gershkovich in Moscow in 2021. Courtesy photo

PRISONER SWAP 

The outcome of the trial could mean a better chance for securing the journalist’s release, according to Russian studies and political science experts.

“This was not unexpected, and the fact that it was sort of rushed – that the trial date of the last hearing was moved up by three weeks – might send an optimistic note that Russia is interested in an exchange and had to get though this particular step in order to make that possible,” Johnson said.

Laura Henry, a professor of government and legal studies at Bowdoin, said that if a swap takes place, it will likely be in exchange for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian imprisoned in Germany on charges of murder.

“We don’t have any high-value Russian prisoners in the U.S.,” Henry said. “The Germans historically have not been eager to engage in prisoner swaps. … But I think the U.S. has been working really actively with European partners to make a case that is an occasion.”

The Biden administration released a statement Friday morning stating that it was still working on Gershkovich’s release and would continue to support press freedom worldwide.

“I have had no higher priority than seeking the release and safe return of Evan, Paul Whelan and all Americans wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad,” the statement said. “Evan has endured his ordeal with remarkable strength. We will not cease in our efforts to bring him home.”

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the trial was a “sham” and said that journalism is not a crime, a sentiment echoed by the Biden administration and the Wall Street Journal.

“Congresswoman Pingree continues to support the Biden Administration’s efforts to negotiate his release and bring Evan home,” a spokesperson for Pingree said in a statement to the Press Herald.

Sen. Angus King said in a statement that Gershkovich has been unjustly imprisoned.

“Journalism is not a crime – a free press is critical to the foundation of a free society and common human rights around the world. Since his graduation from Bowdoin College, Evan Gershkovich has committed himself to responsible, ethical journalism in all corners of the globe,” King said. “Maine, and the entire nation, stands with Evan and we will continue doing everything in our power to bring him home safely.”

Sen. Susan Collins asked the Biden administration to redouble its efforts to bring him home, saying “Evan’s reporting on Putin’s brutal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and its effect on Ukrainians have helped to inform our efforts in Congress.”

The conviction comes at the heels of the lengthy sentencing of another American reporter, Masha Gessen, who was sentenced in a Moscow court on Monday in absentia to eight years in prison for criticizing the war in Ukraine, according to The Associated Press. The Moscow-born journalist is an award-winning writer who resides in the U.S. and writes for The New Yorker.

Press Herald Staff Writer Rachel Ohm contributed to this story.