Frenchman found guilty in Finland of illegal export of military equipment to Russia

A court in Finland has sentenced a French citizen, a director of two companies, to nine months of suspended imprisonment for violating sanctions imposed by the European Union against Russia.

He illegally exported military equipment to Kazakhstan via Russia. This was reported by Reuters.

It is known that Gabriel Temin, executive director of two shipping companies, Siberica Ltd. and Luminor Ltd., registered in Finland, was responsible for the trade of Taiwanese equipment for blocking UAVs to Kazakhstan. However, he denied the charges.

According to the Ita-Uusimaa District Court, correspondence on Telegram between the executive director and clients is insufficient evidence that the equipment’s final destination would have been the Russian Federation, not Kazakhstan. However, exporting defense equipment requires a permit.

“In any case, Gabriel Temin committed a crime by exporting the supplies from Finland,” the court said in a statement.

In court, Temin said that last year he twice ordered drone blocking equipment via the Internet from the Taiwanese company Drones Vision at the request of his client, the Bassire Group. They cost €385,000. According to the Frenchman, he allegedly didn’t know that this military equipment required an export permit.

Finnish customs suspected that almost 3,500 drones exported by Temin and Luminor had arrived in Russia, not Turkey.

In total, out of 31 cases, the prosecutor closed 4, when the court found a French citizen guilty in 2 cases, and dismissed 25 due to lack of evidence.

The court ruled that the businessman falsified the destination of German instruments subject to sanctions in the two cases where Temin was found guilty, as reported by Reuters.

The director insisted on heading to Kazakhstan, not St. Petersburg. However, according to Siberica’s documents, they ended up in the Russian Federation.