HELSINKI: Prosecutors in Finland called for two-and-a-half year prison sentences for the captain and two senior officers of a ship suspected of cutting Baltic Sea cables in 2024, as their trial ended Friday.
The three crew members of the Cook Islands-registered oil tanker Eagle S are accused of dragging the ship’s anchor on the seabed for around 90 kilometers (56 miles), damaging five undersea cables in the Gulf of Finland on December 25, 2024.
The Eagle S is believed to belong to Russia’s shadow fleet.
The three men have been charged with “aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with communications.”
During the trial, prosecutors argued the trio neglected their duties intentionally, after leaving the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Christmas Day.
“We ask for a minimum of two years and six months of unconditional imprisonment,” prosecutor Heidi Nummela told the Helsinki district court.
The suspects should have noticed and inspected the anchors when the tanker’s speed dropped, which “clearly indicated that the ship was dragging something,” prosecutor Krista Mannerhovi told AFP during a break in Friday’s proceedings.
The ship’s captain, Davit Vadatchkoria of Georgia, and senior officers Robert Egizaryan of Georgia and Santosh Kumar Chaurasia of India, have denied the charges.
They insisted the incident was an accident, and claimed the ship had slowed down due to an engine problem and rough weather conditions.
Vadatchkoria testified last week that there was no indication the anchor had fallen from the ship.
“There was no reason to doubt that it was not in order,” he told the court.
The EstLink 2 power cable and four telecommunications cables connecting Finland and Estonia were damaged in the incident.
The cuts threatened Finland’s energy supply and critical infrastructure, according to prosecutors.
Several undersea cables in the Baltic were damaged last year, with many experts calling it part of a “hybrid war” carried out by Russia against Western countries.
Moscow is accused of using its clandestine “shadow fleet” to dodge sanctions imposed by Western allies over Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The court on Friday revoked the suspects’ travel bans in place since December 2024, rejecting the prosecution’s request for an extension.
The verdict is expected October 3.
Finnish prosecutors seek prison for crew accused of Baltic cable cuts
https://arab.news/wny4f
Finnish prosecutors seek prison for crew accused of Baltic cable cuts
- The Eagle S is believed to belong to Russia’s shadow fleet
- The three men have been charged with “aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with communications“
Rubio says technical talks with Denmark, Greenland officials over Arctic security have begun
- US Secretary of State on Wednesday appeared eager to downplay Trump’s rift with Europe over Greenland
WASHINGTON: Technical talks between the US, Denmark and Greenland over hatching an Arctic security deal are now underway, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday.
The foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland agreed to create a working group aimed at addressing differences with the US during a Washington meeting earlier this month with Vice President JD Vance and Rubio.
The group was created after President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for the US to take over Greenland, a Danish territory, in the name of countering threats from Russia and China — calls that Greenland, Denmark and European allies forcefully rejected.
“It begins today and it will be a regular process,” Rubio said of the working group, as he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We’re going to try to do it in a way that isn’t like a media circus every time these conversations happen, because we think that creates more flexibility on both sides to arrive at a positive outcome.”
The Danish Foreign Ministry said Wednesday’s talks focused on “how we can address US concerns about security in the Arctic while respecting the red lines of the Kingdom.” Red lines refers to the sovereignty of Greenland.
Trump’s renewed threats in recent weeks to annex Greenland, which is a semiautonomous territory of a NATO ally, has roiled US-European relations.
Trump this month announced he would slap new tariffs on Denmark and seven other European countries that opposed his takeover calls, only to abruptly drop his threats after a “framework” for a deal over access to the mineral-rich island was reached, with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s help. Few details of the agreement have emerged.
After stiff pushback from European allies to his Greenland rhetoric, Trump also announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week that he would take off the table the possibility of using American military force to acquire Greenland.
The president backed off his tariff threats and softened his language after Wall Street suffered its biggest losses in months over concerns that Trump’s Greenland ambitions could spur a trade war and fundamentally rupture NATO, a 32-member transatlantic military alliance that’s been a linchpin of post-World War II security.
Rubio on Wednesday appeared eager to downplay Trump’s rift with Europe over Greenland.
“We’ve got a little bit of work to do, but I think we’re going to wind up in a good place, and I think you’ll hear the same from our colleagues in Europe very shortly,” Rubio said.
Rubio during Wednesday’s hearing also had a pointed exchange with Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, about Trump repeatedly referring to Greenland as Iceland while at Davos.
“Yeah, he meant to say Greenland, but I think we’re all familiar with presidents that have verbal stumbles,” Rubio said in responding to Kaine’s questions about Trump’s flub — taking a veiled dig at former President Joe Biden. “We’ve had presidents like that before. Some made a lot more than this one.”
