A court in Norway sentenced Andrei Medvedev, the former commander of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), to 14 days in prison for violating public order and carrying an air gun in a public place.

As Associated Press reports, an Oslo court acquitted Medvedev, who is seeking asylum in Norway, of using violence against police officers during an arrest (Ukr), his lawyer, Brinulf Risnes, said.

He admitted resisting arrest and spitting when handcuffed but denied hitting police, a lawyer said after his client appeared in court on Tuesday.

Medvedev also pleaded guilty to carrying an air gun when he went to a pub in the centre of Oslo in March.

This is not the first time that Medvedev has faced problems after fleeing to Norway. At the end of February, he was detained for a fight near a pub in Oslo (Ukr).

Medvedev fled Russia, crossing the border with Norway (Ukr) on 13 January.

Medvedev's escape attracted huge global attention. He said that he fought on the side of the Wagner mercenary group in Bakhmut in the east of Ukraine, but fled Russia because he was afraid for his life because of the Wagner Group’s cruelty towards fighters from their own PMC.

Medvedev was the commander of a unit that included Yevgeny Nuzhin, a Wagner mercenary whose execution with a sledgehammer was captured on a video that appeared on the network in November 2022.