Russia detains Japanese journalist on Sakhalin on spying charges
The FSB accuses the Hokkaido Shimbun reporter of gathering information on Russia's defence capabilities. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Archive image · Photo: Maarten / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained a Japanese journalist on suspicion of espionage. The Hokkaido Shimbun reporter was arrested in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk as he was preparing to leave Russia, the FSB said, and is accused of gathering information on Russia's defence capabilities for Japanese intelligence. A Moscow court ordered him held for nearly two months, Reuters reported, and state TV showed a handcuffed man. The charges carry up to 20 years in prison, Al Jazeera reported.
Japan's embassy in Moscow was trying to verify the reports, an embassy official told Kyodo News. The arrest comes amid heightened tensions after President Vladimir Putin visited one of the disputed Kuril Islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories, in August. Russia treats Japan as an "unfriendly" country because it joined Western sanctions, and the two countries never signed a World War Two peace treaty.