A Russian court said on Friday it had extended to August the pre-trial detention of US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who has been charged, according to her employer, with spreading "false information" about the army and could face up to 10 years in prison.
Kurmasheva, a journalist at the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was arrested in October last year.
"They extended the preliminary detention to August 5," Rumiya Mubarakzanova, a spokesperson for the Sovietsky district court in the central Russian city of Kazan, told AFP. Mubarakzanova said she could not confirm the charges levelled against Kurmasheva because it was a closed hearing.
RFE/RL has reported that Kurmasheva faces charges of failing to register as a "foreign agent" and of spreading false information about the army, under a new censorship law introduced after Russia launched its military offensive on Ukraine in 2022.
Friday's hearing did not concern the substance of the case.
The deputy spokesperson for the US embassy in Moscow, Daniel Kanigan, told AFP that Washington was "closely following the outcome" of the hearing.
"The United States condemns these ongoing persecutions, which are a tragedy for the entire people of Russia, who have a constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of the press," Kanigan said. "Journalism is not a crime."
Kurmasheva is "a dedicated journalist who is detained for her uncompromising commitment to reporting the truth to the Russian people, regardless of whether the truth makes the Kremlin uncomfortable," he said.
She edited a 2022 book titled Saying No to War, which is a collection of interviews and stories from Russians opposed to the military campaign against Ukraine ordered by President Vladimir Putin.
Kurmasheva, who lived in Prague with her husband and two children, had her US and Russian passports confiscated last summer after travelling to Russia for a family emergency and was fined for failing to declare dual citizenship.
While waiting to receive her passports back, she was re-arrested for failing to register as a "foreign agent", which is punishable by up to five years in prison, and sent to a pre-trial detention center. Russia later accused her of also spreading "false information" about the army, according to RFE.
Rights groups have accused Russia of using oppressive legislation to target critics and independent journalists. Kurmasheva is the second US journalist to be arrested in Russia since the start of the Ukraine offensive.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has spent more than a year in jail on espionage charges that carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He too has denied the charges.
Washington has accused Moscow of arresting US citizens without evidence to swap for the release of Russians jailed abroad. Kurmasheva's lawyers have called for her to be released and put under house arrest pending trial.