The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) welcomes the release of wrongly convicted United States (U.S.) journalists Evan Gershkovich, born 1991, and Alsu Kurmasheva (Алсу Курмашева), born 1976. Both had been unjustly imprisoned in Russia and released on 1 August 2024. Their freedom was secured through a prisoner exchange involving Russia, Belarus, the United States and several European countries. In total, Russian and Belarus authorities reportedly released 15 prisoners from custody. In return, 8 Russian citizens have been released from prisons in the US, Poland, Norway, Germany and Slovenia. Several of them have been accused of intelligence activities and one Russian was accused for killing in Germany. Also children of two of the prisoners were sent to Russia.
The prisoner swap comes shortly after Gershkovich and Kurmasheva were sentenced in trials that were widely criticized as being farcical and politically driven. Gershkovich, a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/), was detained in March 2023 while covering recruitment efforts by Russia’s now-defunct Wagner Group. He was accused of espionage linked to his journalistic activities, culminating in a 16-year prison sentence in July 2024.
Kurmasheva, a journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Радио Свобода – RFE/RL – https://www.rferl.org/), was arrested in her hometown of Kazan (Казань), Tatarstan, Russia, in October 2023. Her conviction was based on charges of disseminating “fake news” about the Russian military, stemming from her involvement in a book published by RFE/RL on Russians opposed to the invasion of Ukraine. She faced up to 15 years in prison under Article 207.3 of Russia’s criminal code.
Despite today’s positive outcome, the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) remains deeply concerned about the continued incarceration of Russian and Belarus journalists. SEEMO renew our call on Russian and Belarus authorities to immediately release all journalists still imprisoned.
According to the latest news Belarusian journalist and blogger Ales Sabaleuski and video reporter Yauhen Hlushkou have been sentenced on 31 July 2024 to 4 and 3 years in prison respectively. Both come from the Belarus city of Mahilyow /Mahilou / Mogilev (Магілёў), where they worked for local independent media and have been accused of participation in extremist and armed formations or armed conflict on the territory of a foreign state, military actions, recruitment, or preparation for such . Both also were fined with 8000 BYN (around 2450 USD) each of them. Sabaleuski was arrested in December 2023 and Hlushkou in January 2024.
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is a regional non-governmental, non profit network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in Southeast, South, East and Central Europe. SEEMO members are in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova (with the territory of Transdnestria), Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Türkiye / Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Austria, Italy, Vatican and San Marino have a special status in SEEMO. SEEMO has over 3000 individual members, and additional media as corporate members.
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