Finland Releases Ship Suspected of Cable Damage as Investigation Proceeds
The Finnish Border Guard, midday on Monday, January 12, escorted the cargo ship Fitburg out to sea after nearly two weeks of detention. The police reported that the phase of the investigation into the damage to subsea telecommunication cables has proceeded so that the vessel is no longer required.
The Fitburg flagged in St Vincent and the Grenadines and owned by a Turkish company with links to Russia, was permitted to get underway with its AIS signal showing the ship is bound for Haifa, Israel. The police reported that the joint team working with Estonia had inspected the ship and completed gathering information.
The Finnish Border Guard vessel Turva, along with a coast guard boat, escorted the Fitburg from the port of Kantvik, west of Helsinki until it was into the Baltic. Before the ship was permitted to sail, the authorities completed a Port State inspection, reporting that no major safety issues were found and the condition of the ship was in line with its age. The ship is 25 years old, it was built in 2001.
The Customs Authority also inspected the cargo and consulted with EU officials about possible sanctions violations. The ship is transporting structural steel loaded in St. Petersburg, Russia, which is sanctioned, but since the ship was not intending to bring the cargo into the EU, it was released.
Reports said the owners had to bring in at least a partial replacement crew for some of the 14 individuals aboard the ship. On Sunday, January 11, a court in Helsinki held a custody hearing and remanded one crewmember being held for a potential trial on aggravated damage to telecommunications cables. Three other crewmembers have been ordered not to leave Finland as the investigation proceeds.
The newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported last week that the one crewmember in custody is a 48-year-old Azerbaijani who was working as a boatswain on the vessel. The owners reported he had joined the ship in Russia on December 27 and was on his sixth contract with the ship.
The newspaper also reported that the captain of the vessel is a 56-year-old Russian. It is unclear how long he has been sailing on the ship. Helsingin Sanomat confirmed that an arrest warrant has not been issued for the captain, while Finnish officials have declined to release additional details at this time in the investigation.
They confirmed that the Border Guard, working with the Navy’s countermeasures vessel Katanpaa, completed the initial survey of the seafloor. They said the vessel Turva located and documented a drag mark caused by the Fitburg. The vessel’s anchor was down when the Finnish authorities found the ship on December 31 and directed it into Finnish waters. The police confirmed the marks stretch over a distance of “tens of kilometers.”
The Helsinki police reported that the telecom cable running from Estonia to Finland owned by Finnish telecom company Elisa was damaged on December 31. Estonian authorities have reported that a Swedish-owned telecom cable was also damaged around the same time. The police have said they were investigating the intent of the crew.
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Last year, another crew that was accused of poor seamanship by proceeding with its anchor down on the tanker Eagle S and damaging cables was released by a Helsinki court. The court found the damage had happened in international waters outside Finland’s jurisdiction. That case was appealed by the Finnish prosecutor’s office.
Finnish authorities have said this time the damage was in the Estonian EEZ, but they acted on behalf of a Finnish company. Further, the Estonians had reported their vessels could not operate and reach the Fitburg because of bad weather in the region.