He was arrested in September. French cyclist Sofiane Sehili, detained in Russia for illegally crossing the border, has been released, his lawyer said this Thursday morning, quoted by the Russian news agency TASS. He was found guilty of illegally crossing the Russian border and received a fine of 50,000 rubles (approximately 529 euros), specifies the same source.
Information confirmed by a court in the Primorye region, in the Russian Far East, which “recognized Sofiane Sehili guilty” and sentenced him, according to judge Irina Billé cited by the Russian public agency RIA Novosti. Taking into account the time spent in pre-trial detention, the 44-year-old endurance cyclist was exempted from paying the fine and released in the court room, according to the same source.
“He only thought about his sporting achievement”
Sofiane Srhili had wanted to cycle to Russia from China via a border crossing which could only be crossed by train or bus, according to the head of a public prison control commission, Vladimir Naïdine. However, using these modes of transport would have invalidated his record after more than 60 days and thousands of kilometers of effort. This was to be the final leg of his world record Eurasian bicycle crossing.
The cyclist left Lisbon at the beginning of July, and planned to cross 17 countries to arrive at the beginning of September in Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East. His partner Fanny Bensussan told France 3 Occitanie in September that the cyclist had decided to present himself to customs officers, convinced that they would still let him pass by bike, but had been arrested. “He only thought about his sporting achievement,” she explained.
Former documentarian at the cultural magazine Télérama, Sofiane Sehili specializes in ultracycling, involving events lasting several hundred or thousands of kilometers. Several Western nationals have been arrested in Russia since the start of the large-scale offensive in Ukraine in 2022, and diplomatic relations between Paris and Moscow are frosty.
