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Russian court upholds arrest of Norwegian citizen accused of spying

Frode Berg is charged with spying under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code

© Sergei Shleyuk/TASS

MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. The Moscow city court on Tuesday upheld the arrest of Norwegian citizen Frode Berg, who is accused of spying, a TASS correspondent reports from the courtroom.

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Norwegian national accused of espionage in Russia never worked for CIA, says lawyer

The judge said the defense lawyer’s appeal against remanding Berg in custody till February 5, 2018 was dismissed. The case was considered behind closed doors because the case involved secret documents.

Berg is charged with spying under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code. The federal security service FSB detained him in Moscow in a special operation the moment he was receiving secret documents. The investigators say the documents concerning Russia’s Navy were handed over to Berg by Russian citizen Aleksey Zhitnyuk. A district court in Moscow ordered his arrest on charges of high treason (Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code).

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