Belarus authorities sentence Japanese citizen to 7 years in prison on espionage charges

A Japanese man was sentenced in Minsk on March 17 to seven years in prison on changes stemming from "espionage activity," Belarus’ Prosecutor General's Office said.

Authorities convicted Nakanishi for allegedly taking over 9,000 photos of civilian and military infrastructure. The man was accused of taking photos of military facilities and railway infrastructure. Belarusian authorities also claimed Nakanishi traveled to the Ukrainian border.

Under the regime of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, Minsk has imprisoned hundreds of political prisoners, convicting a number hundreds of people under the guise of anti-state activity. According to the Viasna human rights monitoring group, there are currently 1,213 political prisoners in Belarus.

Masatoshi Nakanishi has been in custody since July for allegedly spying for a foreign intelligence agency between 2018 and 2024, local authorities said. Nakanishi's arrest was only publicly announced in September, despite his arrest several months prior.

The Japanese Embassy in Belarus was barred from attending the court proceedings which ended on March 17.

Nakanishi, who live in the bordering city of Gomel and taught at a local university, was convicted by the Minsk City Court in a closed-door trial that spanned over the course of two months.

"Like other political prisoners, he is being dehumanized by regime propaganda," Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said in a post to X on March 17, calling for Nakanishi's immediate release.

Japan's Embassy in Belarus also told Japanese media outlet NHK that is was calling for immediate release.