Four Russian citizens arrested last week in Norway for allegedly taking photos of protected premises were released today after it was confirmed that they were tourists.
The three men and one woman were arrested on 11 October in Mosjoen, northern Norway, and held in pre-trial detention pending an investigation into whether they had taken photos of protected buildings, including a coast guard base.
The security forces searched the vehicle in which the suspects entered Norway, via Finland, finding a large amount of equipment and photographic material, which reinforced suspicions of espionage.
However, according to the Norwegian news agency NTB, the police now believe that the four are really tourists, as they stated at the time of the arrest, since the photographs and recorded images did not have anything compromising.
Counting these four Russians, a total of seven Russian citizens have been detained on suspicion of espionage since last week in Norway, a country that has seen a huge increase in the number of drones sighted near energy production facilities and airports. .
The other three Russians remain in pretrial detention while police investigate the allegations.
These suspects were arrested in different parts of the country in possession of ‘drones’, with which it is said that two of them took images of airports.
One of the sanctions imposed on Russia as part of the February 24 invasion of Ukraine is a ban on Russian citizens from flying drones on Norwegian territory.
Source: TSF
