Proprietor seeks launch of oil tanker seized in Finland cable probe

HELSINKI (Reuters) – The proprietor of an oil tanker seized by Finland on suspicion of breaking an undersea energy line and 4 telecoms cables within the Baltic Sea final week is looking for the discharge of the ship, a lawyer representing the corporate mentioned on Monday.

Finnish police and coast guard officers boarded the Cook dinner Islands-registered Eagle S on Thursday and introduced it to a location close to a Finnish port the place crew members are being questioned.

Baltic Sea nations have been on excessive alert after a string of outages of energy cables, telecom hyperlinks and fuel pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. NATO mentioned on Friday it could enhance its presence within the area.

Investigators mentioned they believed the Eagle S on Dec. 25 broke the Estlink 2 undersea energy cable linking Finland and Estonia, and severed or broken 4 fibre optic strains by dragging its anchor throughout the seabed for dozens of kilometres.

Finland’s president final week mentioned he believed additional injury would have occurred on the seabed had the ship not been stopped.

Finland’s customs service has mentioned it believes the Eagle S is a part of a shadow fleet of ageing tankers getting used to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil, and has formally impounded its cargo though it’s nonetheless on board the ship.

The proprietor of the Eagle S, United Arab Emirates-based Caravella LLC FZ, filed a request with the Helsinki District Courtroom on Monday to cancel the seizure of the ship.

Finnish lawyer Herman Ljungberg, who filed the paperwork on behalf of the corporate, mentioned authorities had not supplied any clarification of the authorized foundation for taking the vessel into custody and boarding it.

“The Finns have hijacked a vessel,” Ljungberg instructed Reuters.

He mentioned the crew had been interrogated by investigators with none authorized help and that they’d been disadvantaged of sleep.

A police spokesperson mentioned the seizure of the vessel had taken place in keeping with Finnish regulation and that crew members had been knowledgeable of their rights, together with that of authorized help.

That they had not been disadvantaged of sleep, the spokesperson added.