A court in Oslo has sentenced a 50-year-old Israeli-Russian citizen to 120 days in jail for unauthorised photo shooting using a drone, says TV 2.
It is noted that the court failed to prove that the man was involved in espionage: engaged in espionage: the confiscated equipment, namely 4TB of images and video, contained pictures of nature houses that the detainee’s friend was going to let.
The Russian admitted using drones 47 times between 27 August and 11 October but said he did not consider himself guilty as he was unaware that what he had been doing was illegal.
The man will be released in early February considering the 49 days he spent under arrest before the trial. He was detained on 11 October at the Storskog border checkpoint having two drones and numerous electronic devices with him. It was reported that the detained individual was Vitaly Rustanovich, an amateur photographer.
Over the past months, 10 Russian nationals have been detained in northern Norway (where strategic facilities are located) for suspicious activity that might be beneficial to the Russian government. Furthermore, Norwegian journalists noted that the Russian Orthodox Church had acquired several properties not far from military bases in Norway at once.
