Russia sentences Wall Street Journal journalist to 16 years in prison

Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal journalist unfairly accused by Russian authorities of espionage, was sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony, following a rushed and secretive court process that the U.S. government has publicly condemned.

The court's decision, after three days of hearings, was widely seen as a foregone conclusion, as innocences in Russian espionage trials are extremely rare. Gershkovich was offered some of the protections normally afforded to defendants in the US and other Western countries.

Russian authorities have presented no public evidence to support their claims, which Gershkovich, the Journal and the U.S. government have strongly and repeatedly denied. A court spokeswoman said Gershkovich "pleaded not guilty" during Friday's proceedings.

"This sham, sham legal process that we are seeing take place has no impact on the urgency we have placed to seek Evan's release from custody and seek release even for Paul Whelan. And we will continue with that process tirelessly," Vedant Patel, deputy State Department spokesman, said thursday.

Gershkovich, a 32-year-old U.S. citizen, has been jailed since March last year, when he was detained by the country's Federal Security Service, or FSB, while on a reporting assignment in Yekaterinburg, about 900 miles east of Moscow.