Russia fines French cyclist for illegal border crossing

A district court in Russia’s Primorye region has found French cyclist Sofiane Sehili guilty of illegally crossing the Russian state border and imposed a fine of 50,000 rubles ($613), TASS reports, citing his lawyer Alla Kushnir.

“They imposed a fine of 50,000 rubles. [Since Sehili was held in custody, he] was released from paying the fine,” the lawyer said.

Earlier, Le Monde reported on Sechili's detention in Vladivostok. The cyclist was attempting to break the world record for crossing Eurasia by bicycle, but was stopped at the Chinese-Russian border on September 2.

At the end of July, Finnish border guards detained him on suspicion of illegally crossing the state border by land from Finland to Russia and back. 

By Khagan Isayev