Evan Gershkovich, the imprisoned reporter for The Wall Street Journal, appeared in a courtroom in a Russian city of Yekaterinburg on Thursday for the second hearing in his espionage trial, the court’s press service said, in a case that has been denounced by his employer and the United States government.

The hearing was initially scheduled to take place on Aug. 13. According to Mediazona, a Russian news outlet, the court moved it ahead at the request from Mr. Gershkovich’s lawyers.

The hearing came more than 15 months after Mr. Gershkovich, 32, was detained by security agents in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, about 900 miles east of Moscow. After spending more than a year in a high-security prison in Moscow, Mr. Gershkovich was transferred back to Yekaterinburg to stand trial.

Mr. Gershkovich, the first Western reporter to be detained on an espionage charge in Russia since the Cold War era, had worked in Russia as a journalist for various publications for more than five years before his arrest.

His employer and the U.S. government have denied the charges against him, calling them politically motivated. The State Department has designated Mr. Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained,” which effectively compels it to work for his safe release.

Held behind closed doors, the trial is unlikely to shed more light on the prosecution’s case. But the verdict is in little doubt. The Russian justice system overwhelmingly produces guilty verdicts.