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Baltic cable cuts: Finnish prosecutor files appeal
The Finnish prosecutor has appealed after a Helsinki court declared itself incompetent to try the captain and two officers of a Russian ghost fleet vessel, accused of damaging undersea cables in the Baltic Sea in late 2024.
The court argued that the case should fall under the jurisdiction of the ship's flag state (the Eagle S was registered in the Cook Islands) or the defendants’ home countries.
The Georgian captain and two senior officers, Georgian and Indian, were accused of dragging the ship's anchor across the seabed for about 90 kilometers, damaging five undersea cables in the Gulf of Finland on Christmas Day 2024.
The Finnish prosecutor explained that under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Finland’s criminal code could not apply, even though Finland could be considered the location where the alleged crimes occurred.
Experts and politicians have described the alleged sabotage as part of a “hybrid war” by Russia against Western countries, amid rising tensions in the Baltic since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to an EU list, the Eagle S belongs to the Russian ghost fleet used to sell oil while evading Western sanctions.