Oct 14: 🇨🇳 Yang Yiming (杨艺明), the Chinese spy arrested in Prague in Jan this year, appeared before the Municipal Court in Prague. Yang, who officially worked in the Czech Republic as a correspondent for 🇨🇳 CCP-owned “Guangming Daily”, stood before Judge Tom Frankič. The proceedings are closed to the public. This marks the first time in history that the Czech justice system has addressed charges of unauthorized activity on behalf of a foreign power — specifically, espionage. The case began with an investigation by the National Centre Against Terrorism, Extremism and Cybercrime in cooperation with the Security Information Service; police detained the foreign national this January and remanded him in custody. According to investigators, the journalistic accreditation served merely as a cover for intelligence activities. Yang had arrived in the Czech Republic in 2022. "He deliberately concealed the facts, his activities, and his status from the public authorities of the Czech Republic," the indictment stated. According to the indictment read in court, the Chinese national deliberately acted to avoid detection. He gathered intelligence in the Czech Republic and associated with individuals he sought to cultivate as sources. "He repeatedly invited them to dinners and gave them small gifts," the indictment stated. He also invited these individuals to visit China. The indictment alleges that he synthesized the information he obtained and passed it on. "He proposed further steps or measures to evaluate the handling of his contacts," the document noted. This reportedly enabled China to better manage its relationship with the Czech Republic. The only words spoken by the Chinese national in court were: "I have asked my legal representative to answer on my behalf." His representative then stated that the alleged spy maintains his innocence and contests the charges. The defense further argued that the mere intent to gather information does not constitute a threat to the Czech Republic's interests, and denied that the man was a member of a "foreign intelligence agency." The defense attorney emphasized that the information gathering was part of journalistic work. "A network of journalistic contacts is not an intelligence network," the defense stated, referring to the espionage allegations. The defense also proposed that the court exclude the public from further proceedings, while the prosecutor proposed excluding the public from only a portion of the trial. Yang was reportedly tasked with monitoring the situation in the Visegrád Group region and systematically cultivating sources within political and academic circles. His contacts included, for instance, former MEP Jan Zahradil, who granted him an interview and, upon request, wrote an analysis of the international situation. However, the politician cut off contact in the summer of 2024 after security services informally warned him that the journalist posed a risk. Michal Koudelka, the head of the BIS (Czech Security Information Service), previously spoke about the detention of the Chinese national, who has remained in custody since the incident. "Only a few countries in the world — the US, the UK, and a handful of others — have the resolve to carry out such an exposure and subsequent criminal prosecution. We are now part of this exclusive club. The Czech Republic has shown the Chinese what the Russians already know: that they cannot simply do whatever they please here," he stated. The main trial is now scheduled for three days, from Oct 14 to 16. If found guilty, the defendant faces up to five years in prison and deportation for unauthorized activity on behalf of a foreign power. english.radio.cz/prague-cour… idnes.cz/zpravy/domaci/zacin…