May 10 (UPI) -- Leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee introduced a resolution on Wednesday, calling for the release journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was detained by Russia in March.
Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Ranking Member Gregory W. Meeks, D-N.Y., said Gershkovich should be immediately released because there are no grounds for his detainment.
"Russia has no grounds to hold Evan Gershkovich prisoner, he's an innocent American journalist," the statement said. "We are proud to introduce this resolution calling on the Russian government to release Evan and other wrongfully detained Americans immediately and return them to their families."
The Kremlin accused Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, of breaking Russian law on behalf of the U.S. government while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, located more than 1,000 miles east of Moscow. The Wall Street Journal and the Biden administration have denied the charges.
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Russia's Federal Security Service accused the reporter of collecting information that constituted a state secret about the activities happening at one of its military-industrial complexes.
Last month he was denied bail during a court appearance.
The court ordered Gershkovich back into custody after his attorneys failed to convince it that the reporter should be released from pretrial detention after three weeks of confinement.
Gershkovich was ordered to remain at Lefortovo prison as he awaits trial on the charges that U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy called "baseless" after she was able to meet with him recently.
Tatiana Nozhkina, a lawyer for Gershkovich, said outside the courthouse that his legal team will continue to pursue the appeal.
"He asserts that he is not guilty," she said.
