An Israeli with Russian citizenship was arrested yesterday by the authorities in Norway at the land crossing point to Russia while in possession of many documentaries that he photographed using a drone. According to the authorities, the Israeli traveled around the country in August and was arrested for violating the sanctions that prohibit Russian citizens from flying drones in Norway.
According to state media reports, the man was arrested during a routine customs inspection on October 11 with two drones and four terabytes of image and video files, some of which are encrypted. The police say that so far there is no indication that he is not just a tourist.
The police prosecutor said that “We arrested him since he is a citizen of a third country, and he has nothing to do with Norway. The man was charged because Russian citizens are not allowed to fly drones in Norway, due to the sanctions rules. It is too early to draw conclusions. He had large amounts of data, which we are going through now.” . The Israeli’s defense attorney said: “My client is only accused of flying a drone.”
At the same time, the local court accepted the request of the police, extended his detention by two weeks and transferred him to temporary detention for fear that he would try to “escape judicial proceedings”. Norway’s intelligence services announced that if it turns out that the man was spying for Norway – they will be the ones to lead the investigation.