The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 17 press freedom organizations, journalists associations and rights groups on Wednesday in calling on U.S. President Joe Biden to act immediately to declare Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen and an editor with the Tatar-Bashkir service of the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), as “wrongfully detained” by the Russian government, a status that would unlock a broad U.S. government effort to free her.
Kurmasheva has been in pretrial detention since authorities apprehended her on October 18, 2023, on charges of failing to register herself as a foreign agent, which carries a prison sentence of up to five years. An additional charge of spreading “fake” information about the Russian army was later brought against her, which could carry a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
Read the full letter here.