Finland jails Russian cargo ship captain over Baltic Sea cable sabotage

A Finnish court sentenced the Russian captain and an Azerbaijani crew member of the cargo ship Fitburg to prison terms on Thursday for aggravated sabotage, following damage to two subsea telecommunications cables in the Gulf of Finland last year. The vessel was seized by Finnish authorities on December 31 while en route from Russia to Israel, suspected of damaging cables running from Helsinki to Estonia.

The Helsinki District Court found the two defendants guilty of intentionally dragging an anchor chain and anchor shank along the seabed for around 130 kilometers, damaging 14 cables and a gas pipeline in its path. Despite the captain's lawyers claiming to intend appealing the verdict, the crew member has yet to decide whether to challenge the ruling.

Both defendants will also be required to pay €1.9 million (US$2.1 million) in damages, with the captain ordered to pay an additional €85,000. The ship, flying under the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, was headed to Israel at the time of the incident, and has since been released. The two defendants, who remain in Finland under travel bans, deny any wrongdoing and have contested Finland's jurisdiction in the matter.