Japanese man arrested in Belarus on charges of acting as special services agent
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/09/2024 (459 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Japanese man has been arrested in Belarus and is facing charges of working for Japan’s special services by photographing military and civilian infrastructure near the border with Ukraine.
A report on Belarusian state TV on Thursday said suspect Masatoshi Nakanishi was arrested in July. and faces seven years in prison if convicted.
The TV report said Nakanishi took 9,000 photographs of military installations, airfields, railway lines, bridges and other infrastructure in the Belarusian-Ukrainian border area. Nakanishi had lived in Gomel, Belarus’ second-largest city, near the border, since 2018 and taught Japanese at a local university, the report said.
Belarus has been a staging point for Russian troops in the war in Ukraine, but Belarus has not sent its own troops into Ukraine.
The state TV report showed Nakanishi confessing and showing some places he had photographed. Belarusian TV has frequently shown reports of criminal confessions and statements of regret that are widely regarded as made under duress.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Friday that Japan’s government protested to Belarus’ foreign ministry regarding the report.
Hayashi said the report contained “materials considered to be problematic from the perspective of human rights protection of this man.”