ID :
15853
Thu, 08/14/2008 - 10:34
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/15853
The shortlink copeid
Police send papers on man alleged to have spied for Russia for 30 yrs
TOKYO, Aug. 13 Kyodo - Police sent papers to prosecutors Wednesday on a Russian man, who they believe spied for Russia for over 30 years, on suspicion of illegally obtaining a Japanese passport in Austria in 1992, police officials said.
The man, believed to be in his late 70s, gathered political and military intelligence inside and outside of Japan while working for a Japanese trading house from 1960 until the 1990s and was supported by a first secretary at theRussian Embassy in Japan, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
The Tokyo police's Public Security Bureau searched the man's home in 1997 and allegedly seized radio communication equipment and lists of random numbers. The bureau sought to question the Russian diplomat after the search but theofficial left Japan a few days later.
The man -- suspected of being an agent of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, formerly known as the KGB -- left Japan in 1995 and the bureau secured an arrest warrant in July 1997 and placed him on an internationalwanted list.
The bureau has decided to close its investigation by sending the case to prosecutors as the man is unlikely to reenter Japan as the passport he was issued and which he renewed outside of Japan expired in June last year, thepolice said.
According to the investigation, the suspect, whose real name remains unknown, allegedly obtained a Japanese passport in violation of the Passport Law at the Japanese Embassy in Vienna in June 1992 by pretending to be Ichiro Kuroba, adental technician who went missing in Fukushima Prefecture around 1965 aged 34.
The suspect allegedly entered and left Japan on several occasions using thepassport.
The suspect started working for a Tokyo trading house using Kuroba's identity and later married a Japanese woman, the investigation showed. The woman was also questioned by the police and said she thought the man was Japanese and didnot suspect he had been a spy for around 30 years.
The man has been unaccounted for since February 1997, when the woman met him onthe outskirts of Moscow.
The man, believed to be in his late 70s, gathered political and military intelligence inside and outside of Japan while working for a Japanese trading house from 1960 until the 1990s and was supported by a first secretary at theRussian Embassy in Japan, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
The Tokyo police's Public Security Bureau searched the man's home in 1997 and allegedly seized radio communication equipment and lists of random numbers. The bureau sought to question the Russian diplomat after the search but theofficial left Japan a few days later.
The man -- suspected of being an agent of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, formerly known as the KGB -- left Japan in 1995 and the bureau secured an arrest warrant in July 1997 and placed him on an internationalwanted list.
The bureau has decided to close its investigation by sending the case to prosecutors as the man is unlikely to reenter Japan as the passport he was issued and which he renewed outside of Japan expired in June last year, thepolice said.
According to the investigation, the suspect, whose real name remains unknown, allegedly obtained a Japanese passport in violation of the Passport Law at the Japanese Embassy in Vienna in June 1992 by pretending to be Ichiro Kuroba, adental technician who went missing in Fukushima Prefecture around 1965 aged 34.
The suspect allegedly entered and left Japan on several occasions using thepassport.
The suspect started working for a Tokyo trading house using Kuroba's identity and later married a Japanese woman, the investigation showed. The woman was also questioned by the police and said she thought the man was Japanese and didnot suspect he had been a spy for around 30 years.
The man has been unaccounted for since February 1997, when the woman met him onthe outskirts of Moscow.
