UN experts: Russia violated law by imprisoning Evan Gershkovich [Video]

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, made up of independent experts convened by the U.N.’s top human rights body, said there was a “striking lack of any factual or legal substantiation” for spying charges leveled against Gershkovich, 32.

The five-member group said Gershkovich’s U.S. nationality has been a factor in his detention, and as a result the case against him was “discriminatory.”

“The Working Group finds that Mr. Gershkovich’s deprivation of liberty constitutes a violation of international law on the grounds of discrimination based on his nationality,” it said in an opinion that was taken in March but made public only on Tuesday.

Gershkovich went on trial behind closed doors on Wednesday in the Russian city Yekaterinburg, where he was arrested on March 29 last year while on a …