– The ruling will be appealed and we are asking for a suspensive effect, says director of information Martin Bernsen in the Police Security Service (PST) to NTB. PST asks that Jakunin be kept in custody until the imprisonment is dealt with. It happens after the Hålogaland Court of Appeal decided on Thursday that Andrej Jakunin should be released, after he was charged with using a drone in Svalbard. – The majority’s assessment was that there was no criminal offence. We are very pleased to see that the Court of Appeal agrees with us, We are on our way to the prison to talk to Jakunin there, says defense attorney Bernt Heiberg to news. The Court of Appeal agrees to keep Jakunin in custody until the Supreme Court has dealt with the case. Jakunin will then be in custody until the Supreme Court possibly hears his case. – Incorrect and unfortunate decision news met Jakunin’s defense attorney, Bernt Heiberg, and lawyer Jens Bernhard Herstad, outside Tromsø prison, shortly after the message that PST appealed came. – In our view, it is an incorrect and a very unfortunate decision, says Jakunin’s defender, Bernt Heiberg, about the appeal to PST. – In a situation where the appeal body has found that an act is not punishable, then the person concerned should be released immediately. Defense counsel for Jakunin, Bernt Heiberg and lawyer Jens Bernhard Herstad. Photo: Aurora Berg / news Jakunin’s defender, Bernt Heiberg, tells NTB that the Court of Appeal has upheld the PST with suspensive effect, which means that Jakunin will remain in office until the Supreme Court has dealt with the case. Heiberg claims that suspensory effect is rarely given in cases where the court has concluded that an act is not affected by Norwegian criminal law. The Hålogaland Court of Appeal decided earlier on Thursday that they will release Andrej Jakunin, who is charged with having flown a drone in Svalbard. John Christian Elden, who is one of Jakunin’s lawyers, writes in a press release that he is very satisfied that the Court of Appeal decided that his client had not broken the law. – It is not criminal for a Russian to fly recreational drones in Norway, according to the Court of Appeal’s decision. Andrej Jakunin should therefore be released immediately, says Elden. Appeal against ruling on detention Jakunin has been imprisoned in Tromsø. He is the third of four Russians who have been arrested by drone in Norway since 11 October and detained. The basis is the sanctions that were introduced against Russia after the war against Ukraine. Russian-British businessman Andrej Jakunin (47) has, according to the charges, flown illegally while on holiday in Svalbard. He was remanded in custody in Hammerfest on 18 October, but appealed the ruling. Jakunin has an estimated fortune of close to NOK 3 billion. That’s what ForumDaily writes, citing the Delovoy Peterburg newspaper. He could afford to bring in several lawyers in addition to his publicly appointed defender. Bernt Heiberg and John Christian Elden from Elden Advokatfirma wrote an extensive appeal, which news has seen. Bernt Heiberg and John Christian Elden from Elden Advokatfirma have attacked the imprisonment of Jakunin from several angles. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB They attack the arrest on three points: A drone is not an aircraft They believe, firstly, that drones are not covered by the flight ban. The ban applies to “aircraft”, and that word has no clear definition. Drones end up on both sides of the line, depending on what they are used for. The defenders cite a letter from the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority which states that drones are not considered aircraft when they are used for recreational flying. According to the Court of Appeal, the term aircraft is initially defined broadly enough to include drones. But in the sanction regulations it is still narrowed down. Two out of three judges state: “With such a qualification of which aircraft are covered, the relevant drones used by the accused in this case clearly fall outside the prohibition in the sanctions regulations”, they write. A British citizen cannot be punished as a Russian. Moreover, they point out that Jakunin has British citizenship in addition to the Russian one. The Storting has not considered whether persons with dual citizenship should be affected by the sanctions, the defenders point out. If that was the intention, the sanctions would also affect Norwegians who have Russian citizenship in addition to Norwegian. The defenders conclude that the sanctions law only affects people with a closer connection to Russia. The sanctions violate the Svalbard Treaty The last thing is that the sanctions cannot apply to Svalbard. It would violate the Svalbard Treaty, which requires equal treatment of all who have joined it. Both Great Britain and Russia have signed, the lawyers point out. On this point, they have received opposition from professor and international law expert Geir Ulfstein. He has told news that the treaty does not apply to aviation. The court has not made a decision on the last two arguments, because in any case it concludes that drones are not covered by the sanctions. The map shows drone observations near important infrastructure such as airports, military installations and oil and gas fields since 15 September. Only observations that can be located with a certain degree of accuracy are included in the map. Graphics: / Susanne Stubberud Rom/NRKKartet shows drone observations close to important infrastructure such as airports, military installations and oil and gas fields since 15 September. Only observations that can be located with a certain degree of accuracy are included in the map. Graphics: / Susanne Stubberud Room/news Professor support Several lawyers at the University of Oslo, including two professors, have written a column in Bergens Tidende in which they claim that Russians cannot be prosecuted for flying drones in Norway. Among other things, they emphasize that drones are not clearly defined as aircraft, and therefore not covered by the sanctions. Thus, it would violate the Constitution to punish them for drone flying. The problem will now be food for the Supreme Court. A Russian who was imprisoned in the Gulating Court of Appeal this week has decided to appeal further. The judges in Gulating do not go into more detail about whether drone use is a type of aviation that is affected by the sanctions. The man’s defense counsel did not address this either, based on what appears in the ruling. These are the Russians who have been caught by drone: 11 October: A 50-year-old was caught at the border at Storskog. He was initially remanded in custody for two weeks, and will be produced for extended custody on Thursday. 14 October: A 51-year-old arrested at Tromsø Airport. Remanded in custody for two weeks, appeal rejected by the Court of Appeal. 17 October: Businessman Andrej Jakunin (47) was arrested in Hammerfest. Imprisoned for two weeks, but appealed. 20 October: A Russian in his 30s was arrested in Ullensvang. He has been remanded in custody by the Court of Appeal and has appealed to the Supreme Court.
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PST appeals the release of drone suspect Jakunin – news Troms and Finnmark
