WSJ journalist Gershkovich, arrested in espionage case, not complaining about conditions at Moscow jail - commission

MOSCOW. April 3 (Interfax) - Members of Moscow's Public Monitoring Commission have visited U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been arrested on suspicion of espionage and is being held at the Lefortovo remand center.

"We have visited Evan Gershkovich. He is not complaining about the conditions at Lefortovo," a commission spokesperson told Interfax.

Gershkovich "is in good spirits and joked a lot during the conversation," the spokesperson said.

Gershkovich is currently in a so-called quarantine cell, which is a two-person cell, but he is being held there alone for now, he said.

"Another inmate may join him in this cell only after a negative result on a Covid-19 test is received," the spokesperson said.

The meals being provided to Gershkovich "comply with the established standards," he said.

On March 30, the public relations center of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) reported on March 30 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."