Worthy Christian News > World News > Biden Urged To Recognize US Journalist As ‘Wrongfully Detained’ By Russia (Worthy News In-depth)

Biden Urged To Recognize US Journalist As ‘Wrongfully Detained’ By Russia (Worthy News In-depth)

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

PRAGUE/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Eighteen journalism and press freedom groups have urged U.S. President Joe Biden to ensure that Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) network is declared “wrongfully detained” by Moscow.

RFE/RL has also expressed concerns about three other journalists of the network held in Belarus, a close ally of Russia and in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Kurmasheva was the second U.S. journalist detained in Russia last year after Wall Street Journal newspaper reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested on espionage charges in March.

Gershkovich and his employer have rejected the charges, and the U.S. authorities designated him “wrongfully detained.”

The groups want a similar designation for Alsu, an American and Russian citizen.

“It’s clear that Russia is holding Alsu hostage because she is a journalist and an American citizen,” the groups said in an open letter obtained by Worthy News.

“Her case is currently with the Consular Affairs division of State, which, as you know, handles the cases of Americans who have committed or been charged with crimes such as illegal entry, corruption, and other criminal matters. None of these apply to Alsu’s case. She was arrested because she is a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Russia’s only motive for holding her is to trade her for one of their assets,” wrote the groups.

STATE SECTION

“We have a section of the State Department designed for cases like Alsu’s – the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. For her case to be transferred there, she first needs to be declared wrongfully detained. She meets all the criteria. This should happen immediately. It should have happened months ago.”

The groups condemned the U.S. State Department as it allegedly “twist itself into a pretzel explaining how there are other factors to be considered besides the criteria.” However, “we have yet to hear a clear reason why the State cannot declare her wrongfully detained. The lack of transparency and engagement on this critical issue is concerning.
It has taken Alsu’s government far too long to step forward and say that her detention is wrongful.”

They added that the “journalism community demands that action be taken now to appropriately assist Alsu. She has been held eight months, not allowed to see or talk to her children or husband. Your State Department must declare Aldu as wrongly detained now. Thank you for your prompt attention to this urgent matter,” they wrote Biden in the letter signed by 18 groups such as  The National Press Club and Reporters Without Borders.

Kurmasheva, an editor for RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir service, was taken into custody on October 18 and charged with “failing to register as a foreign agent” while collecting information about the Russian military. Later, she was accused of spreading “false information” about the Russian army.

Kurmasheva was initially stopped on June 2 at Kazan International Airport after traveling to Russia the previous month to visit her ailing elderly mother, U.S. sources said.

Officials reportedly confiscated her U.S. and Russian passports and fined the journalist for failing to register her U.S. passport. She was waiting for her passports to be returned when she was arrested on new charges in October.

RFE, which has demanded her immediate release, also remains worried about three other network journalists held in Belarus and Crimea on charges related to their work.

IHAR LOSUK

Among them is Ihar Losuk, who serves a 15-year jail sentence for his coverage of autocratically-ruled Belarus, a close ally of Russia. “Ihar is held incommunicado, and no one has heard from him since February 2023,” RFE/RL said.

Belarusian journalist Losik, a media consultant for RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, sent a letter to his parents on February 20, 2023.

On the morning of June 25, 2020, a group of security officers broke into Losik’s apartment in the western city of Baranavichi.

Computers, telephones, and other possessions were confiscated, and Losik was taken away in a gray Mercedes bus, leaving behind his young wife and child. “He and his family, suspecting arrest was looming, had already purchased tickets to fly to Georgia on July 1, the first day that flights were resumed following pandemic-related restrictions,” RFE/RL said.

“Ihar told me that he had been forced to buy rags and detergent to clean his cell,” said a former prisoner at the notorious Correctional Colony No. 1 in the northern city of Navapolatsk who crossed paths with Losik at the beginning of this year and who asked not to be identified.

“The prisoners have to pay for them with their own money. The authorities intentionally created a situation in which Ihar did not have toilet paper. He mostly sits in his cell alone and is often not given the chance to buy even the most basic necessities. It is simply a mockery,” the ex-inmate told RFE/RL.

Belarus has imprisoned over 1,400 political prisoners, including journalists, activists, doctors, and teachers. Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya said, “Our political prisoners are heroes. And one of these heroes is lhar Losik.”

MORE SUFFERING

In comments seen by Worthy News, RFE/RL said it remains concerned about Andrey Kuznechyk who serves a six-year sentence for his RFE/RL journalism work in Belarus.

The 45-year-old father of two “longs to be reunited with his family,” RFE/RL stressed.

Vladyslav Yesypenko, a dual Ukrainian-Russian citizen journalist who contributed to RFE/RL’s regional news outlet, is serving a five-year sentence in Russia-occupied Crimea, RFE/RL added. However, “he was tortured to extract a false confession.”

Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has further intensified its crackdown on journalists, Worthy News learned from several sources.

Yesypenko was recognized by supporters for “his courageous and incisive journalism.”

He received several awards, including in 2022 when he received the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, which his wife, Kateryna, accepted with his young daughter, Stefania.

RFE/RL was told by Russian authorities in 2017 to register as a foreign agent, but it has challenged Moscow’s use of foreign agent laws in the European Court of Human Rights. Russia has fined the broadcaster and website publisher millions of dollars.