(NewsNation) — American journalist Evan Gershkovich is with his family in San Antonio, Texas, undergoing health assessments after returning to the United States via a Russian prisoner swap, according to The Wall Street Journal Assistant Editor Paul Beckett.

Gershkovich was one of 26 people included in the exchange that involved cooperation from seven countries. Russian authorities detained him in 2023 on suspicion of espionage and sentenced him last month to 16 years in a maximum-security prison. The U.S. government said the allegations were fabricated.

Among those returning to Russia is Vadim Krasikov, who was imprisoned in Germany. Krasikov is a Russian hitman arrested and sentenced in 2021 for murdering a Georgian citizen in Berlin who’d fought against the Russian military, the report said.

“I don’t think anybody likes the idea of sending guilty people back to Russia to get innocent people out but … we knew the alternative for Evan two weeks ago when they sentenced him to 16 years in a Russian penal colony,” Beckett said.

“So we are just delighted this travesty of justice was diverted and that Evan was reunited with his family.”

Within hours of landing in the United States, Gershkovich called for the release of remaining political prisoners.

“Basically everyone I sat with was a political prisoner,” he said Thursday. “Today was a touching moment to see all them but it would be, I think, good to see if potentially we could do something about them as well.”