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PARIS: A French court today fined a British journalist 1,000 euros ($1,100) for flying a drone over central Paris and confiscated the machine, as authorities scramble to explain a recent series of mysterious overflights.
Tristan Redman, 34, from the Qatar-based network Al-Jazeera, was arrested last month in the Bois de Boulogne park on the western edge of the French capital along with two other journalists.
The two others were released and Redman pleaded guilty to flying a drone over the capital, which is illegal under French law.
Their arrest followed two nights of unexplained drone sightings over the French capital, although a source with knowledge of the case said the journalists were not involved in the earlier incidents.
Those mysterious sightings were made near the US embassy, not far from the Invalides military museum, the Eiffel Tower and several major thoroughfares leading in and out of the French capital, police said.