Journalist Fined €1,000 For Flying Drone Above Paris

An Al Jazeera English journalist has been fined €1,000 by a Paris court for flying a drone without authorization on the edges of the French capital during a state of high alert.



Tristan Redman, one of three Al Jazeera journalists arrested last week for allegedly flying a drone in the Bois de Boulogne woods in western Paris, escaped a possible one-year prison sentence and a €75,000 ($85,000) fine during the hearing at the Tribunal de Grande Instance in the High Court of Paris on Tuesday.



The court also ordered the confiscation of the drone.



Redman and his lawyer declined to comment after the ruling.



Al Jazeera had previously said in a statement the journalists were arrested and questioned by Paris police "while filming a report on the city's recent mystery drones".



The arrests came after a series of unidentified drones were spotted flying over key landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Place de la Concorde, the Invalides military museum and La Bastille in the capital last week.



High security



 Paris has been on a high security alert following the attacks on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in early January.



Flying drones in French airspace requires authorization from the Defense Ministry and the Regional Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA), while flying a drone at night is illegal, with violators facing up to a year in prison and fine of up to €75,000 ($85,000).



Other unidentified drones have been spotted in French skies in recent months.



A drone briefly flew over the presidential palace in Paris on Jan. 20, while another 20 were spotted above nuclear power plants in northern and southwestern France in October and November last year.



Under French law, civilian drones are banned from areas such as nuclear facilities, which are protected by no-fly zones.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Ile-de-France