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Finland court jails captain, crew member over cable sabotage
DW.com • • world
Key Points:
- A Finnish court convicted the Russian captain and a senior crew member of the cargo ship Fitburg for intentionally damaging two undersea telecommunications cables in the Gulf of Finland last year, sentencing them for "aggravated criminal damage."
- The captain received a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence, while the Azerbaijani crew member was sentenced to two years and ten months; both were ordered to pay approximately €1.9 million in damages, with the captain paying an additional €85,000.
- The defendants denied wrongdoing and challenged Finland's jurisdiction over the case.
- Finnish authorities seized the Fitburg on December 31, suspecting it had dragged its anchor for about 130 kilometers along the seabed, damaging cables connecting Helsinki and Tallinn.
- At the time, the Fitburg was traveling from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Haifa, Israel, with a 14-member crew when the incident occurred within Finland's exclusive economic zone.
