Helsinki (AFP) - A Helsinki court on Friday dismissed a case against three members of a ship from Russia’s “shadow fleet” suspected of cutting Baltic Sea cables, saying it was beyond its jurisdiction.

The captain and two senior officers of the Cook Islands-registered oil tanker Eagle S were accused of dragging the anchor on the seabed for around 90 kilometres (56 miles), damaging five undersea cables in the Gulf of Finland on December 25, 2024.

The EstLink 2 power cable and four telecommunications cables connecting Finland and Estonia were damaged, one of several similar incidents last year.

With tensions mounting around the Baltic Sea since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many experts and political leaders have viewed the suspected sabotage as part of a “hybrid war” by Russia against Western countries.

The Helsinki District Court said it was “dismissing the charge in the case involving the tanker Eagle S along with the claims for damages… as it was not possible to apply Finnish criminal law”.

- Vessel seized -

Prosecutors had argued the captain, Davit Vadatchkoria of Georgia, and senior officers Robert Egizaryan, a Georgian, and Santosh Kumar Chaurasia from India, neglected their duties intentionally, after leaving the Russian port of Ust-Luga.

The three were charged with “aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with communications”.

Prosecutors called for unconditional prison sentences of at least two-and-a-half years.

The defendants, who testified before the court in August and September, denied the charges.

Speaking to public broadcaster Yle on Friday, Vadatchkoria said the case had proved Finland complied with the rule of law.

“The court did not allow itself to be influenced by political pressure to deliver a guilty verdict,” he said.

Following the cuts, Finnish authorities ordered the vessel into Finnish waters and then boarded it and later seized it.

Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told US broadcaster CBS in late September that he had authorised the interception of the tanker, allowing the Border Guard to “use all the tools they have”.

The defence argued that Finland lacked jurisdiction because the cable cuts happened outside Finnish territorial waters.

The prosecution insisted it did, due to the risk posed to Finland’s critical infrastructure.

The court said the incident did not result “in the kinds of consequences to Finland’s energy supply or telecommunications that are required to satisfy the statutory definition of criminal mischief or aggravated criminal mischief”.

The Finnish state will now have to pay the defendants’ legal fees, totalling nearly 195,000 euros ($229,000).

- ‘Cables severed accidentally’ -

The court found that “the anchor loss was due to a failure of the anchor securing mechanism” and “should be classified as an incident of navigation within the meaning of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea”.

“It was courts of the ship’s flag state or the defendants’ native states that had criminal law competence in the matter,” it added.

When the trial ended in September, the court revoked the suspects’ travel bans in place since December 2024.

The defendants insisted the cables were severed accidentally and claimed the ship slowed down due to engine problems and rough weather conditions.

According to Vadatchkoria, there had been no indication the anchor had fallen from the ship.

“There was no reason to doubt that it was not in order,” he told the court.

But prosecutors argued the crew must have been aware of the anchor dragging behind the vessel.

“If a ship drags an anchor behind it for several hours for 90 kilometres, is it really possible that no one would notice?” prosecutor Mikko Larkia said at the start of the trial.

Potential Russian responsibility for the incident was not discussed during the trial.