Japanese reporter detained in Russia receives consular visit after 13 days: “No health problems”

【Financial News Tokyo = Seo Hyejin, correspondent】A consular visit was held for a Japanese Hokkaido Shimbun reporter detained in Russia on suspicion of espionage, 13 days after his detention. The Japanese government confirmed that the reporter had no health problems and again called on Russia to release him immediately.
According to Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NHK and other sources on the 27th, an official from the Japanese Embassy in Russia visited the Lefortovo detention center in Moscow the previous day and met with the reporter.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “We confirmed through the consular visit that there were no problems with the detained reporter’s health.” It added that it would continue to call on the Russian government for his immediate release, humanitarian consideration and fair treatment.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) detained a male reporter with Hokkaido Shimbun on the 13th in Sakhalin Oblast in the Far East on suspicion of espionage. The Japanese government has since demanded that Russia allow consular visits in accordance with the treaty between the two countries. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that the Japanese government had not engaged in espionage activities in Russia.
The Lefortovo detention center, where the reporter is being held, is a security facility once run by the Soviet Union’s Committee for State Security (KGB) and now under the jurisdiction of the FSB. It is also known as the place where Nobel Prize in Literature laureate and dissident writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was imprisoned.

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