Japan said it still had not met reporter Yuki Imai after officials visited the Moscow detention center where he is held, keeping consular access at the center of a dispute with Russia. Imai works for Hokkaido Shimbun.
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the Oct. 22 visit to Lefortovo detention center was to deliver items requested by Imai’s family. Japanese officials did not meet with him. Motegi has said access is needed to check Imai’s health and hear his account.
On Oct. 14, Japan summoned Russian Ambassador Nikolai Nozdrev and sought information about the detention, fair and humane treatment for Imai, and permission for him to contact the Japanese government. At a Moscow meeting on Oct. 20, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan official Kimitake Nakamura renewed Tokyo’s requests for consular access and Imai’s release, Motegi said.
Japan invokes a 1966 consular protocol with the Soviet Union, which Tokyo says remains in force. The rules provide a two-to-four-day period for a consular officer to visit and communicate with a detainee; the timing depends on the place of detention, Japan says.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Imai was detained in Sakhalin Oblast before he planned to leave Russia and that a case was opened under Article 276 of the country’s Criminal Code, which covers espionage. In FSB-distributed footage, an operative alleged Imai gathered information about mobilized people and Kuril Islands volunteers. The FSB said the information was intended for Japanese intelligence. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi denied that Japan’s government conducts espionage in Russia, saying, “There is no such fact.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry has also accused Tokyo of using correspondents to collect information against Russia.
The case unfolds amid a territorial dispute over islands Japan calls the Northern Territories and Russia calls the Southern Kurils. The Associated Press has linked the unresolved dispute to the absence of a formal peace treaty between the two countries.
The International Federation of Journalists reported that a Moscow court ordered Imai held in pretrial detention until Dec. 12. The organization said no trial date had been set.
