On Tuesday, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal asked UN experts to recognize the detention of American journalist Evan Hershkovich in Russia as “arbitrary”, one of its executives said, according to AFP.

“It’s been 167 days since Evan was wrongfully detained,” Jason Conti, an attorney and executive vice president at Dow Jones, said at a news conference.

“Today, we submitted a petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, asking it to issue an opinion stating that Evan is being detained arbitrarily, that Russia has failed to fulfill its obligations under international law (…) and demanding that Russia will urgently release Evan,” he added, condemning “Moscow’s diplomacy regarding hostage-taking.”

A Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested in Russia in March on “espionage” charges, which he denies. In August, the Moscow court extended his preventive measure until November 30.

“Russia has not imprisoned Hershkovich because it legitimately considers the allegations that he is a US spy to be absurd,” Dow Jones said in a letter to the Task Force posted on the website.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin is using Hershkovich as a pawn, holding him hostage to put pressure on the United States — and demand a ransom,” the document added.

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, consisting of five independent experts, conducts investigations and issues conclusions on cases of deprivation of liberty under the mandate of the UN Human Rights Council.