Belarus sentences Japanese man to 7 years for spying

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’s prosecutor general said.

Prosecutors said the man carried out the espionage between 2018 and 2024.

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.