Finnish court says has no jurisdiction in Eagle S cable damage case
A court in Finland has ruled it has no jurisdiction over a case where a suspected Russian "shadow fleet" vessel damaged undersea cables last Christmas.
Finland and Estonia have said the ship, the Eagle S, is part of Russia's shadow fleet, mostly oil tankers evading sanctions to sell to China and India, with the proceeds helping to keep Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine going.
The December 25 incident saw the Estlink 2 and is part of a pattern of infrastructure damage and other hybrid warfare activities Russia has been pursuing since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
The trial would have been significant in being the first judicial attempts to punish suspected perpetrators for damaging critical underwater infrastructure, Reuters reports.
However, the complexities of international maritime law have made it difficult to prove criminal intent.
The Georgian captain, Davit Vadatchkoria, and two crew member co-defendants, have all denied the charges; the Finnish state is now expected to have to pay the defendants' legal fees, a sum of around €195,000, Yle reports.
On Friday, the Helsinki District Court confirmed that it did not have jurisdiction in the case. Since the alleged crimes were committed before the vessel entered Finnish territorial waters, the scope of Finnish criminal law cannot be based on legal guidelines concerning the territorial sea, the court found.
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the power to prosecute any crime rests with the ship's flag state or the defendants' native countries, the court added.
The ruling remains subject to appeal.
The criminal trial of three crew members began at the end of August and the prosecutor had demanded a minimum of two-and-a-half years' prison time for Vadatchkoria and co-defendants Robert Egizaryan and Santosh Kumar Chaurasia.
The trio stood charged with aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with telecommunications.
The trial hinged on whether the crew should have noticed that the ship's anchor was dragging behind the vessel, for 90 kilometers. During this time, prosecutors alleged the crew allowed the ship's anchor to drag across the sea floor, breaking four other undersea cables as well as Estlink 2.
Finnish authorities had stated said that the Eagle S voluntarily entered Finnish territorial waters, after the cables were broken on Christmas day. Late on on December 25th, Finland launched a special operation to board the Eagle S.
The Helsinki court had also said that the damage caused to the electricity cable could, at worst, have prompted an uptick in electricity prices and power outages of a few hours in different parts of Finland.
While the danger the incident posed was significant, especially coming during winter time, further negative impacts did not materialize, the court said.
The Finnish court lifted the defendants' travel bans at the end of the trial, and they have since left Finland. Estlink 2 went back on line in late June.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
Source: Yle, Reuters
