US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva given 6.5 years in Russian jail in swift and secret trial

A Russian court has sentenced Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist, to six-and-a-half years in prison, state news agency TASS reported Monday.

The hearing, which was held behind closed doors, found Kurmasheva guilty of spreading false information about the Russian army, making her just the latest US journalist to be convicted in the country in recent months.

Kurmasheva’s charge was handed down in the city of Kazan on Friday, the same day that a court in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in prison, following a trial condemned by his newspaper and the United States as a sham.