MOSCOW. April 6 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court will hear an appeal from the defense of Evan Gershkovich, the correspondent of The Wall Street Journal's Moscow bureau suspected of spying, on April 18.
"The Moscow City Court has scheduled the hearing of appeals from lawyers for April 18," the press service for Moscow's Lefortovsky District Court told Interfax.
As expected, the Moscow City Court will hold the hearing in camera in the presence of Gershkovich, as materials in the proceeding are classified.
On March 30, Moscow's Lefortovsky District Court placed Gershkovich under arrest until May 29 in response to investigators' motion.
The defense disagreed with the judgment and asked a higher-tier court to overrule it, and to choose a non-custodial measure for Gershkovich's restraint.
Gershkovich is facing up to 20 years of incarceration on counts of spying.
The public relations center of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) reported the detention of Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen born in 1991, on March 30.
According to the FSB, Gershkovich, "acting on the orders of the U.S., was gathering information about a Russian defense plant that constitutes a state secret."
"The American was detained in Yekaterinburg while trying to obtain secret information," it said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said later that Gershkovich was "caught red-handed."