Three people were indicted on Monday in a case involving a cable break in the Baltic Sea. The Finnish prosecution service wrote in a press release.
The authority has indicted a captain and a first and second officer on the tanker "Eagle S" for "gross vandalism and gross disruption of communication lines".
The press release states that the ship "Eagle S" is suspected of having damaged five submarine cables in the Gulf of Finland by dragging its anchor across the seabed for approximately 90 kilometers.
The defendants plead not guilty. According to the prosecution, the defendants also believe that Finland does not have jurisdiction in the case because the damage to the cables occurred outside Finnish territorial waters.
The break occurred on December 25 on the Estlink 2 submarine cable, which runs between Finland and Estonia. Other data cables were also damaged. "Eagle S" is registered in the Cook Islands, but the ship is suspected of belonging to Russia's shadow fleet, which is sailing with oil.
In December, Finnish police boarded the ship and had the crew sail it into Finnish waters. However, the ship was allowed to leave Finnish waters again in March, when the first phase of a preliminary investigation was completed, the Finnish news agency Yle wrote.
The ship had a crew of 24 people. In March, it was reported that eight of the crew members are suspected of offenses such as gross sabotage, while three people are supposed to be subject to a travel ban and are not allowed to leave Finland.
It is unknown whether the three people who were indicted on Monday are the ones to whom the travel ban applies. It is also unclear when the trial will take place.
Recently, there has been a lot of attention on submarine cables in the Baltic Sea after several incidents with damaged cables.
In several cases, the cables have been damaged by a ship's anchor being dragged over the seabed and cables - sometimes by accident, other times it is suspected to be deliberate.
/ritzau/
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