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China urged Astellas employee to take plea bargain on spy charge: source
YUKIO TAJIMA
BEIJING -- Chinese authorities encouraged a detained Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma to confess to espionage charges in exchange for a reduced sentence, a source told Nikkei.
The Astellas employee was sentenced Wednesday to three and a half years in prison by a Beijing court. According to a source familiar with the case, the court ruled that he had passed on Chinese internal information at the request of Japanese intelligence in return for compensation, which constituted espionage.
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