This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A court in Moscow has sentenced a Norwegian man to 14 years in a high-security prison after finding him guilty of spying on nuclear submarines.

Frode Berg, 63, a retired former border guard who served on his country’s frontier with Russia, was arrested in Moscow in December 2017 and accused of gathering classified information about Russian nuclear submarines on behalf of Norwegian intelligence services. He was tried behind closed doors.

Prosecutors said Berg was caught with naval documents provided to him by a former Russian police officer, Aleksey Zhitnyuk, who was sentenced to 13 years on treason charges in December.

Berg denied the espionage charges but admitted working as a courier for Norwegian intelligence. He said he did not know he was receiving classified documents.

His lawyer, Ilya Novikov, said his client would not appeal against the verdict and would request a pardon from Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

“He’s been used without his knowledge,” Novikov told the AFP news agency. “He expects his government to undertake diplomatic efforts. We see no practical use in appealing.”

He said that given Berg’s age, 14 years was “basically a life sentence”.

Asked last week about the possibility of pardoning Berg, Putin said: “We must wait for the court proceedings. We will take a look at what we can do with this depending on the court’s decision.”

In his final statement in the trial, Berg said he regretted the damage his case might cause to Norway’s relations with Russia.

Norway, a Nato member, shares an Arctic border with Russia. Relations between the two countries have traditionally been friendly, but they soured after Russia’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

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In September, Norway detained Mikhail Bochkarev, an employee with the Russian upper house of parliament, at Oslo airport. Norway’s national security service said Bochkarev had been seen “acting suspiciously” during a conference at the Norwegian parliament and the building had later been swept for bugs.

The Kremlin described Bochkarev’s arrest as a case of “spy mania”, while the Russian foreign ministry said it was an attempt to “blackmail” Moscow into releasing Berg. Erna Solberg, Norway’s prime minister, denied the arrest was politically motivated. Bochkarev was freed in October after a Norwegian court ruled there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

In December, Paul Whelan, a former US marine who also holds British citizenship, was arrested by FSB intelligence service officers in Moscow and accused of espionage. He could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of the charges, which he denies.