Espionage

A Russian court on Friday convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges his employer and the US have rejected as a sham. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a secretive and rapid trial in the country's highly politicised legal system. Gershkovich, his employer and the US government vehemently denied the charges. US officials and The Wall Street Journal have denounced the trial as a sham. Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg and accused of spying for the US, and has been behind bars ever since. He was the first US journalist taken into custody on espionage charges since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986, at the height of the Cold War. Gershkovich's arrest shocked foreign journalists in Russia, even though the country has enacted increasingly repressive laws on freedom of speech after sending troops into Ukraine.

Russian prosecutors sought a prison sentence of 18 years on Friday for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is on trial on espionage charges that he, his employer and the US vehemently deny. Court officials said the prosecutors made the request during closing arguments in a closed-door court session in Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. US officials and The Wall Street Journal have denounced the secretive and rapid trial in the country's highly politicized legal system as a sham and illegitimate. Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg and accused of spying for the US. He has been behind bars ever since.

Fifteen months after Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on espionage charges, he returns there for his trial starting Wednesday behind closed doors. The 32-year-old Gershkovich, the American-born son of immigrants from the USSR, is the first Western journalist to be arrested on espionage in post-Soviet Russia. Both his employer and the US government vigorously deny the allegations; the State Department has declared him wrongfully detained, thereby committing the government to assertively seek his release. The newspaper has worked diligently to keep the case in the public eye and it has become an issue in the combative months leading up to the US presidential election. Since his arrest on March 29, 2023, Gershkovich has been held in Moscow's notoriously dismal Lefortovo Prison. He has appeared healthy during court hearings in which his appeals for release have been rejected. Evan has displayed remarkable resilience and ..

In February this year, Assange's legal team sought permission for a final appeal, arguing the case was politically motivated

Chinese national Zhang came across military-themed books at the recycling station, and purchased four of them for six yuan ($0.83)

Ragesh Gopakumar, one of the eight Indian Navy veterans released by the Qatar government, expressed joy and gratitude over returning home and being reunited with his family after spending months in captivity in the tiny gulf nation. "We are just happy to be alive... happy to be home," a relieved Gopakumar said, adding that he and his colleagues survived only because of their Defence training. He was freed along with seven other former Navy personnel by Qatar two days ago after their death sentences were commuted to jail terms of varying duration. Gopakumar arrived in Balaramapuram, a suburb located over 16 km away from Kerala's capital city, on Monday and tearfully hugged his family members. Speaking to PTI, the ex-Navy man said, "Prison and confinement is something terrible." Whenever someone enquired what the plight of his family had been when he was in prison, he would ask them to imagine a situation where a husband who used to speak to his wife at least five times a day ...

In a major diplomatic triumph for India, eight veterans of the Indian Navy who were sentenced to death in Qatar were released on Monday

Their death sentence was later commuted to an extended prison term following sustained diplomatic interventions and legal assistance from New Delhi

On October 26, the eight personnel were given death sentence by Qatar's Court of First Instance

The law also empowers authorities with new surveillance powers. These include the ability to access people's emails or social media accounts on electronic devices

The trade ministry has prohibited all use of iPhones and other Apple devices for work purposes, starting this week

Foreign companies are in a difficult situation as China's new anti-espionage law came into effect on Saturday, Nikkei Asia reported

Gershkovich is the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the cold war

Iran said Saturday it executed a former high-ranking defence ministry official and dual Iranian-British national, despite international warnings not to carry out the death sentence. The execution further escalated tensions with the West amid the nationwide anti-government protests shaking the Islamic Republic. The hanging of Ali Reza Akbari, a close ally of top security official Ali Shamkhani, suggests an ongoing power struggle within Iran's theocracy as it tries to contain the demonstrations over the September death of Mahsa Amini. It also harkened back to the mass purges of the military that immediately followed Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Akbari's hanging drew immediate anger from London, which along with the US and others has sanctioned Iran over the protests and its supplying Russia with the bomb-carrying drones now targeting Ukraine. This was a callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people, British Prime

The former Deputy Defence Minister, identified by the Iranian Intelligence Ministry as Alireza Akbari, was charged with 'espionage on behalf of Britain'

Delhi Police's Crime Branch team has arrested a driver working in the Ministry of External Affairs on charges of espionage for allegedly leaking confidential details to a Pakistan-based person, sources said on Friday. According to a source, the arrest was made on Friday from the Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan here. The suspect allegedly used to pass confidential and sensitive information related to national security to a person based in Pakistan. The source said the driver was honey trapped by an ISI person who pretended to be a woman when he spoke with him. Police, however, refused to share any details of the case citing concerns over national security.

The ISRO spy case surfaced in 1994 when S. Nambi Narayanan, a top scientist at the ISRO unit here, was arrested on charges of espionage

The prosecution in the espionage trial of former Russian journalist Ivan Safronov has demanded a 24-year prison sentence

The amendments would increase prison time and fines for people who work with foreign entities to steal information about 'core' technologies, reported Taipei Times