Japanese journalist thrown out of Russia for administrative violationRuslan Isayev, North Caucasus – A citizen of Japan, the journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka, who was arrested in Ingushetia by the law enforcement agencies, is being deported from Russia for five years and fined a sum equivalent to ten minimal monthly salaries*.
This judgement was delivered today by Nazran District Court. The journalist has been given ten days to leave Russia.
The Japanese journalist was detained on November 19 at the railway station in Nazran, two days after his arrival in Ingushetia, which he had entered from North Ossetia, where he was working in Beslan.
Tsuneoka was accused of violating the Russian law on foreigners. According to the authorities, his entry visa had been issued for commercial purposes, and he had been engaging in journalistic activity without the proper accreditation.
This was not the first visit the 36-year-old journalist had made to the North Caucasus. In August 2001 he was kidnapped by unknown persons in the Pankisi Gorge and freed in December that year.
* The minimal monthly salary in Russia is now 600 roubles (over 21 USD). (MD/T)
DISCUSSION FORUM
|
