US journalist Evan Gershkovich convicted of espionage by Russian court

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands listening to the verdict in a glass cage of a courtroom in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday (Dmitri Lovetsky/AP)

A Russian court on Friday convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges his employer and the US have rejected as a sham.

He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a secretive and rapid trial in the country’s highly politicised legal system.