Italian Sentenced as Spy in Afghanistan
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MOSCOW — An Afghan court sentenced an Italian journalist to seven years in prison after convicting him of spying while accompanying anti-government guerrillas, the official Soviet news agency Tass reported.
Fausto Balezlavo, a social sciences student at a university in Trieste, entered Afghanistan illegally in July and accompanied Ahmad Shahom, one of the guerrilla leaders fighting Afghanistan’s Soviet-backed government, Tass said. It not say for whom he was allegedly spying.
Balezlavo is the second European journalist to be convicted of spying in Afghanistan. Alain Guillo, a French free-lance film maker, was convicted Jan. 4 of spying while accompanying guerrillas. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Western correspondents are not allowed into Afghanistan except on government-arranged trips.
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