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Agence France-Presse

A court in Belarus has sentenced a Japanese citizen to seven years in prison for spying, prosecutors said on Monday, in a case that officials in the Russian-allied country have not fully explained.
The man, identified by prosecutors as Nakanishi Masatoshi, was detained in July but Minsk announced the arrest only in September.
A Minsk court found him guilty of “espionage activity”, the office of Belarus’ prosecutor general said.
It said the court convicted him of cooperating with a “special service, security and intelligence agency of a foreign state, involving actions knowingly aimed at harming the national security” of Belarus.
Nakanishi had lived in Gomel, Belarus’ second-largest city, since 2018 and taught Japanese at a local university, according to Belarusian state-controlled media.
Prosecutors said the man carried out the espionage between 2018 and 2024.

Japanese citizen Nakanishi Masatoshi has been sentenced to 7 years in prison by the Belarus regime. The university teacher was accused of "gathering intelligence."
Like other political prisoners, he is being dehumanized by regime propaganda.
We call for his immediate release. pic.twitter.com/uh6XZ08j8K
— Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (@Tsihanouskaya) March 17, 2025

Belarus announced his arrest in a state television report in September that called him an “agent from the land of the rising sun”, with the country’s KGB intelligence service accusing him of collecting military information.
The report said he took photos of military facilities as well as railway infrastructure, and that he had travelled to the Ukrainian border.
It showed footage of masked men in plain clothes carrying him into a van during his detention.
The report also described him as a lawyer.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya criticised Masatoshi’s sentencing, calling for his immediate release.
“Like other political prisoners, he is being dehumanised by regime propaganda,” she wrote on social media.
Belarus, ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, is a close ally of Moscow and has close ties to Beijing.
Japan confirmed the arrest at the time, saying it was doing everything it could to help the man.
Additional reporting by Associated Press


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Belarus sentences Japanese man to 7 years in prison for spying

Government House in Minsk, Belarus. Japanese national Masatoshi Nakanishi was accused of taking pictures of military and civilian facilities. File photo: Shutterstock

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Japanese national Nakanishi Masatoshi was convicted of conducting espionage activities from 2018 to 2024


Japanese national Nakanishi Masatoshi was convicted of conducting espionage activities from 2018 to 2024.


Belarus sentences Japanese man to 7 years in prison for spying

Japanese national Nakanishi Masatoshi was convicted of conducting espionage activities from 2018 to 2024

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