Japan-based US Navy sailor accused of espionage

A Japan-based US Navy sailor has been charged with espionage for allegedly passing classified information to a foreign government.

Bryce Pedicini is alleged to have given documents to foreign agents at least seven times in 2022 and 2023.

The US Navy also accuses him of trying in May 2023 to hand over photographs showing the screen of a military computer.

He faces a court martial while the investigation continues.

The accused is a chief petty officer fire controlman assigned to a Japan-based guided missile destroyer, the USS Higgins.

He has been in custody since May 2023, just days after the last alleged incident in Japan.

The other incidents took place over a period of four months in Hampton Roads, Virginia, in late 2022 and early 2023, say US investigators.

The document alleges that he was handing over information “with reason to believe that it would be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of a foreign nation”.

It is unclear what country he was allegedly attempting to pass documents to, or what those files contained.

The charging sheet notes only that the information was “relating to national defence”.

Commander Arlo Abrahamson, a spokesman for US Naval Surface Force, said in a statement: “The incident remains under investigation and legal proceedings continue.”

CPO Pedicini’s military records show that he enlisted in the US Navy in 2009 and served on several naval vessels.

In addition to charges of espionage and communicating defence information, CPO Pedicini is accused of failing to report foreign contacts to his superiors, failing to report solicitation of classified information, transporting classified information and taking a personal device into a secure room.

The charges were referred to a court martial in January.

Also last month, a 26-year-old sailor, Wenheng Zhao, pleaded guilty to passing on information to Chinese intelligence while working at a California naval base. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.

Zhao was arrested in August alongside another sailor, 22-year-old Jinchao Wei, who was accused of conspiring to send defence information to a Chinese agent.

Mr Wei – who had access to sensitive information about his ship – was allegedly approached by a Chinese agent in early 2022, when he was going through the process of becoming a US citizen.