Finnish court upholds oil tanker seizure in undersea cables probe

Finland seized Eagle S tanker carrying Russian oil on suspicion that it damaged the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power.

A Finnish court has denied a request for the release of an oil tanker suspected by police of damaging an undersea power line and four telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea.

Last week, Finland seized the Eagle S tanker carrying Russian oil on suspicion that it damaged the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power line and the telecoms cables the previous day by dragging its anchor across the seabed.

A lawyer representing United Arab Emirates-based Caravella LLC FZ, which owns the tanker, had sought the release of the vessel and crew.

“This district court has rejected the claim of the defendant, which means that this seizure remains in force,” Helsinki District Court Judge Tatu Koistinen said on Friday.

Finnish lawyer Herman Ljungberg, who represented Caravella, said the company now planned to file a new motion for the vessel’s release.

Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation impounded the vessel and the Finnish customs office seized its cargo of 35,000 tonnes of unleaded petrol while it investigates whether sanctions against Russia have been breached.

The customs service believes the Eagle S is part of a shadow fleet of ageing tankers being used to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil.

Ljungberg, who has accused Finland of capturing the Eagle S in international waters, said on Friday that his legal filing had sought transparency on where the seizure took place, but that this had been turned down by the court.

The owners of the cargo also plan to seek its release, the lawyer said.

The Eagle S, which is registered in the Cook Islands, was brought to a bay near Finland’s port of Porvoo where police are currently collecting evidence and questioning the crew, who are Georgian and Indian citizens.

Finnish police have said eight crew members are suspects in the investigation.

Sweden said on Friday that it was also sending a military ship to help Finnish investigations.

“With their unique expertise, the Swedish armed forces are contributing to helping Finland shed light on what happened,” Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a statement.

Baltic Sea nations have been on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

NATO said last week it would boost its presence in the region.

The European Union has also announced enhanced measures to safeguard undersea cables by improving intelligence sharing and the use of new detection technology and repair capabilities.