MOSCOW. Nov 30 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court has extended the arrest of Norwegian citizen Frode Berg, who is charged with spying, until February, an Interfax correspondent reported from the courtroom.
"The court has ordered to extend the arrest of defendant Berg for two months to a total of 14 months, until February 5, 2019," Judge Andrei Suvorov said.
The court met in camera, as materials in the proceeding are classified.
Russian security services detained Berg near a Moscow hotel on December 5, 2017, and the Lefortovsky District Court ordered his arrest the next day.
According to investigators, Berg mailed money to Russian citizens recruited by a foreign intelligence service in exchange for information about military secrets.
According to Berg's lawyer Ilya Novikov, his client has denied any wrongdoing and said that he had sent money at the request of an acquaintance from Oslo, who claimed that "the addressee needed money badly."
Novikov did not rule out that his client was the victim of a provocation.