American journalist Evan Hershkovich, arrested a few months ago in Russia for “espionage”, appealed on Saturday the recent decision of a Moscow court to extend his pre-trial detention for three months, AFP and Agerpres report.

This is reported by the Moscow City Court on its website.

On Thursday, this court extended for three months the pretrial detention of an American journalist arrested at the end of March in Russia for “espionage”, which he denies.

An extension of the pre-trial detention period was almost certain, as the Russian justice system very rarely releases people imprisoned for trial on such serious charges.

Evan Hershkovich, a Wall Street Journal journalist, was arrested by Russian intelligence services while reporting from Yekaterinburg in the Urals on March 29.

Since then, he has been in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center in Moscow, which is used by the Russian Security Service (FSB) to keep prisoners in near-total isolation.

Several American citizens have been arrested and sentenced to prison terms in Russia in recent years, with Washington accusing Moscow of wanting to exchange them for Russians held in the United States.

Read also: Moscow hints it may be ready to negotiate a prisoner swap for freed reporter Evan Hershkovich