Helsinki District Court convicted the captain and the boatswain of the cargo vessel Fitburg for severe criminal damage related to undersea cable incidents in the Gulf of Finland on New Year’s Eve. The court found that the vessel sailed from Saint Petersburg while dragging an anchor assembly along the seabed for several hours over approximately 130 km outside Finnish territorial waters in the Gulf of Finland, crossing nine telecommunications and power cables and one gas pipeline. Two telecommunications cables were damaged and there was a danger of damage to the remaining telecom and power cables and the gas pipeline. The Russian captain, Andrei Maksimenko (57), received a custodial sentence of three years and six months, and the Azerbaijani boatswain, Vüsal Macidov (48), was sentenced to two years and ten months in prison. They were ordered to jointly pay approximately two million euros in damages. The court rejected separate charges of aggravated interference with telecommunications, considering this covered by the severe criminal damage. Both men denied the offences and challenged Finland’s criminal jurisdiction, but the court held that Finland had jurisdiction because the intentional acts led to consequences manifesting in Finland. The anchor locking mechanisms were found to be functional, and the anchor could only have entered the sea after deliberate release actions on board Fitburg between departure from Saint Petersburg and leaving Russian territorial waters. The court assessed that the likely purpose of the act was to damage subsea infrastructure and noted there was no maritime navigational justification for lowering the anchor. The captain was deemed to have accepted the vessel’s continued voyage while dragging the anchor assembly, and the boatswain to have actively contributed to continuation of the dragging for roughly two hours after Finnish authorities first contacted the ship. The two were immediately remanded into custody after sentencing, having previously been under a travel ban. The case was decided unanimously by a three-judge panel. The article notes a parallel case involving the vessel Eagle S, where an earlier Helsinki District Court decision claiming a lack of Finnish jurisdiction was overturned by the Helsinki Court of Appeal, which returned that case for reconsideration.

Helsinki District Court convicted the captain and the boatswain of the cargo vessel Fitburg for severe criminal damage related to undersea cable incidents in the Gulf of Finland on New Year’s Eve. The court found that the vessel sailed from Saint Petersburg while dragging an anchor assembly along the seabed for several hours over approximately 130 km outside Finnish territorial waters in the Gulf of Finland, crossing nine telecommunications and power cables and one gas pipeline. Two telecommunications cables were damaged and there was a danger of damage to the remaining telecom and power cables and the gas pipeline. The Russian captain, Andrei Maksimenko (57), received a custodial sentence of three years and six months, and the Azerbaijani boatswain, Vüsal Macidov (48), was sentenced to two years and ten months in prison. They were ordered to jointly pay approximately two million euros in damages. The court rejected separate charges of aggravated interference with telecommunications, considering this covered by the severe criminal damage. Both men denied the offences and challenged Finland’s criminal jurisdiction, but the court held that Finland had jurisdiction because the intentional acts led to consequences manifesting in Finland. The anchor locking mechanisms were found to be functional, and the anchor could only have entered the sea after deliberate release actions on board Fitburg between departure from Saint Petersburg and leaving Russian territorial waters. The court assessed that the likely purpose of the act was to damage subsea infrastructure and noted there was no maritime navigational justification for lowering the anchor. The captain was deemed to have accepted the vessel’s continued voyage while dragging the anchor assembly, and the boatswain to have actively contributed to continuation of the dragging for roughly two hours after Finnish authorities first contacted the ship. The two were immediately remanded into custody after sentencing, having previously been under a travel ban. The case was decided unanimously by a three-judge panel. The article notes a parallel case involving the vessel Eagle S, where an earlier Helsinki District Court decision claiming a lack of Finnish jurisdiction was overturned by the Helsinki Court of Appeal, which returned that case for reconsideration.