The Supreme Court of Tatarstan said on Monday that Kurmasheva, a 47-year-old editor for RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir service, was convicted on Friday.
Spokesperson for the Tatarstan Court, Natalya Loseva, confirmed to The Associated Press that Kurmasheva was sentenced in a case classified as secret, leaving the specifics of the accusations undisclosed.
Stephen Capus, President and CEO of RFE/RL, criticized the trial and the conviction as “a mockery of justice,” insisting that “the only just outcome is for Alsu to be immediately released from prison.”
“It’s beyond time for this American citizen, our dear colleague, to be reunited with her loving family,” Capus said.
Kurmasheva, a wife and mother of two, traveled to Russia in May last year for a family emergency from Prague, where she resides with her family.
She was temporarily detained a month later while awaiting her return flight. Kazan airport police confiscated her passports and fined her for not registering her U.S. passport with Russian authorities.
Citing the Tatarstan state news agency Tatar-inform, RFE/RL reported that on October 18, 2023, a new charge emerged against Kurmasheva while she was still waiting for the return of her passports. Local investigators reportedly alleged that she gathered military information about Russian activities from the internet in September 2022 with the intent of passing it to foreign sources.
The report also alleged that Kurmasheva collected information about teachers from a Tatarstan university who had been mobilized into the army and used this data to produce “alternative analytical materials” for foreign agencies.
Also on Friday, the Sverdlovsk Regional Court sentenced U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal.
In a post on Russia’s largest social network, VK, the court stated that in March 2023, Gershkovich, “acting on behalf of U.S. intelligence services, collected classified information in the Sverdlovsk Region about the activities of a defense enterprise involved in producing and repairing military equipment.”
The court also stated that the criminal case against the Wall Street journalist was initiated on June 14 and was classified as “Secret.”
According to the court, Gershkovich did not admit guilt, but “the totality of the evidence presented was sufficient to deliver a guilty verdict.”
Gershkovich’s defense has 15 days to file an appeal. If the sentence is upheld, he will be transferred to a maximum-security penitentiary colony, as the court decided.
The Russian Federal Security Service arrested Gershkovich on March 29, 2023, accusing him of collecting “state secrets” on behalf of the U.S. while reporting from Yekaterinburg.
