Russian-US journalist to stay in prison for six more weeks

Alsu Kurmasheva. Pic/AP

A Russian court on Monday ordered a Russian-American journalist who was detained last week on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent to remain in custody until early December, her employer reported.

Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Tatar-Bashkir service, appeared in a closed session in a court in the city of Kazan, the capital of the Tatarstan republic.

The radio service said the court ordered her to be held until December 5, rejecting her lawyer's request for preventive measures other than in carceration. She is the second US journalist detained in Russia this year, after Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested on espionage charges in March. Gershkovich remains in custody.

The state-run news website Tatar-Inform said Kurmasheva faces charges of failing to register as a "foreign agent" and was collecting information on Russian military activities. Conviction would carry a five-year sentence.

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