Helsinki court jails Fitburg crew over damage to Baltic cables

Helsinki District Court jailed the Fitburg’s captain and boatswain on Thursday for damage to undersea cables. It found both men guilty of aggravated criminal damage in the Gulf of Finland.

The case concerns two cables between Finland and Estonia damaged late last year. Finnish telecoms firm Elisa reported a broken link on 31 December, and authorities seized the cargo ship that day.

The captain received three years and six months in prison. The boatswain was given two years and ten months, Euronews reported. The court ordered both men to be taken into custody at once.

The ruling is not final. The captain’s lawyers said he plans to appeal, while the boatswain had yet to decide, The Moscow Times reported.

The court found that the men had acted on purpose as the ship dragged its anchor along the seabed. Deutsche Welle reported that the court put the distance at about 130 kilometres.

Both men denied wrongdoing and challenged Finland’s right to hear the case. The court ruled that Finland could try them because the acts were deliberate and had effects in Finland, Ukrinform reported.

The court ordered the pair to pay about €1.9 million together in damages. It also ordered the captain to pay a further €85,000, The Moscow Times reported.

A separate charge of disrupting telecoms was dismissed. The court said the criminal damage charge already covered it, Ukrinform reported.

The Fitburg was sailing from St Petersburg to Haifa when the damage occurred, Deutsche Welle reported. Finnish police said it had been dragging its anchor for hours when found in Finland’s exclusive economic zone.

Finland released the ship on 12 January, but some crew stayed in the country. Charges against the two sailors followed in June, Ukrinform reported.