Arabic version: استجواب إيكلستون بشأن بندقية صيد في مطار برتغالي

According to BBC News, former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone was stopped and questioned by police and customs officials after arriving at Tires Aerodrome in Cascais, Portugal, with a shotgun on Monday.

Ecclestone, 95, denied reports that he had been arrested. He said four police officers and customs officials questioned him for about an hour after he travelled from Switzerland, and that he had to surrender the weapon because he lacked the documents needed to import it correctly.

The British businessman said he had intended to use the shotgun in a clay pigeon shooting competition in Portugal. He told the Press Association that Portuguese police were “very helpful”.

Ecclestone said he had previously taken the shotgun from England to Switzerland and expected no difficulty because airport officials there knew him “very well”. On arrival in Portugal, however, he was asked to provide information about the gun and hand it over.

The episode is the second airport firearms-related incident involving Ecclestone. In 2022, he was arrested in Brazil for illegally carrying a gun while boarding a private plane to Switzerland and was ordered to pay 6,000 Brazilian reals (£1,000). Ecclestone ran Formula 1 for nearly 40 years until 2017.