Defense appeals WSJ correspondent Gershkovich's pretrial arrest in espionage case - Moscow court

MOSCOW. April 3 (Interfax) - The defense team for Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent of the Wall Street Journal's Moscow bureau, has appealed his pretrial arrest in his espionage case, the press service of Moscow's Lefortovsky District Court told Interfax on Monday.

"The court has received an appeal against the ruling on taking Gershkovich into custody as a pretrial restrictive measure," it said.

The Lefortovsky District Court ruled on March 30 to grant investigators' motion on taking Gershkovich into custody at least until May 29.

Gershkovich has been implicated in spying.

The public relations center of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) on March 30 reported the detention of Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen born in 1991.

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."