A Finnish district court ruled on Friday that Finland does not have jurisdiction to prosecute the captain and two officers of the Eagle S oil tanker, who were accused of breaking undersea power and internet cables in the Baltic Sea last year.
The trial was among the first judicial attempts to punish suspected perpetrators for damaging critical underwater infrastructure, but the matter is complicated by provisions of international maritime law and the difficulty of proving criminal intent. The three denied the charges.
“The District Court has today issued a judgment dismissing the charge in the case...along with the claims for damages arising from the charge, as it was not possible to apply Finnish criminal law to the case,” the court said in a statement.
NATO forces in the region went on high alert following the December 25 incident, one of a string of cable and gas pipeline outages in the Baltic Sea since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
(Reporting by Elviira Luoma and Anne Kauranen; Editing by Essi Lehto, Terje Solsvik and Alex Richardson)
