Tokyo, Oct. 26 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government said Monday that officials from the Japanese Embassy in Moscow held a consular meeting the same day with a reporter for Japan’s Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper who has been detained by Russian authorities on suspicion of espionage. The reporter, a Japanese national, is in good health, according to the government. Tokyo said it will continue to strongly urge Moscow to immediately release him and ensure humanitarian consideration as well as fair and impartial treatment. Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, said on Oct. 13 that it had detained the reporter for the Hokkaido Shimbun’s Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk bureau in the Sakhalin region in Russia’s Far East. The reporter was transferred to Moscow, where a court approved his detention for two months. He is being held at the Lefortovo detention center in eastern Moscow. The FSB argues that the reporter has collected and stored information on the number of mobilized troops and volunteer fighters for the Russian invasion of Ukraine from the Kuril Islands, which Moscow claims include the four northwestern Pacific islands at the center of a long-standing territorial row between Japan and Russia. Espionage is a serious crime in Russia, carrying a prison sentence of up to 20 years upon conviction. When asked by reporters, an official at the embassy declined to disclose what was discussed in the consular meeting and when the possible next meeting will be held. Under diplomatic arrangements between Japan and Russia, the right to a consular meeting can be exercised within four days of detention, but such a meeting had not taken place for the Hokkaido Shimbun reporter until Monday. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
