Opinion | With a heavy weight on his shoulders, Evan Gershkovich is standing tall

In short, everyone played their part. Everyone, that is, except Gershkovich.

Instead of cowering from the glare, instead of looking confused, or giving his captors the satisfaction of appearing scared, trapped or even frustrated, Gershkovich stood there with his head held high. He had made the correct assessment early on in his ordeal that he has nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of.

I remember a similar sense coming over me during my own trial in Iran.

Make no mistake, one is certainly beset by a sense of fear when the full weight of an authoritarian apparatus is bearing down upon you. But there is also a growing sense of defiance, a knowledge that you are being deeply wronged, the latest victim of a rigged system.

Gershkovich has likely gone through a series of stages in the first weeks of his captivity.

At first, you believe it’s all a big mistake. Someone will surely come to your defense and straighten things out. But authoritarian states don’t make such mistakes. The enormity of the situation starts to dawn on you.

Then there are the threats. Gershkovich was surely sweated down by security service gorillas during his interrogations. It’s harrowing to hear that you might be tortured in gruesome ways, or even killed.

But it has to have also dawned on Gershkovich that he is of no use to the Russians dead. He knows he is a hostage, so he knows he will likely get out. Eventually. As the days dragged on, what began to consume me was the fear of growing old in captivity. Gershkovich is clearly not there yet. And that’s a very good thing.

The defiance on Gershkovich’s face has to come from the realization that his trial is part of a much bigger story. He is now a member of a select community of unfortunate souls who are unjustly subjected to abuse by those wielding unchecked power. He knows that his show trial is part of a bigger effort to scare off foreign journalists, and even more importantly, to silence critics at home.

The type of pressure on a hostage’s shoulders is a uniquely heavy burden. Your opponent is formidable. Law enforcement, the intelligence services, parliament, the foreign ministry and all its diplomats, and the propaganda networks of a mighty state are all intent on bringing you down. And they are doing so because of what you represent: the United States, the West, liberty, freedom of expression.

Evan Gershkovich knew the world was watching. And he did what needed doing.

Thomas Jefferson put it best in his 1805 State of the Union address. His administration had negotiated the release of U.S. sailors who had been taken hostage during the First Barbary War. “In a government bottomed on the will of all,” he said, “the life and liberty of every individual citizen become interesting to all.”

This is precisely why the Biden administration must do everything in its power to free Gershkovich. And also Paul Whelan, who has been held hostage in Russia for nearly five years. And Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Sharghi and Shahab Dalili in Iran. And the dozens of other Americans currently being held by foreign governments around the world.

But Jefferson’s words are not merely a goad to the Biden administration to do the right thing. They are a goad to us all. We must not lose sight of those wrongfully detained around the world. To do so would be to forfeit our most precious inheritance: freedom.