Finland Charges Ship’s Crew Members in Slashing of Undersea Cables

The Finnish authorities said on Monday that they have charged the captain and two other crew members of an oil tanker on suspicion of sabotage in relation to the cutting of vital undersea cables.

The aging tanker, the Eagle S, was seized in late December by the Finnish authorities. They said at the time that the ship might belong to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” a group of older tankers that covertly transport Russian crude oil around the world, raising concerns about a potential covert campaign to sabotage European infrastructure. The tanker was released in March and escorted back into international waters, but Finnish officials said at the time that eight crew members remained under investigation on suspicion of criminal offenses.

On Monday, Finland’s National Prosecution Authority said in a statement that the ship’s captain, as well as the first and second officers, had been charged with “aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with communications” in relation to the episode.

The statement did not identify the three crew members, saying only that they had denied the accusations — which according to the authority appeared to involve dragging the ship’s anchor on the seabed for miles and severing five cables in the Gulf of Finland.

The severing of the cables last December came on the heels of a series of similar incidents. Western officials have long feared that Moscow’s so-called shadow fleet could be used to circumvent sanctions imposed over the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the episodes of severed cables raised fears that it might also be used for sabotage.

Russia, which has denied involvement in sabotage, had condemned the seizure of the Eagle S.

The Finnish authorities on Monday declined to say if they still believed the Eagle S — which is registered in the Cook Islands and had been sailing from Russia to Egypt when it was detained — might belong to Russia’s shadow fleet.

In its statement, the National Prosecution Authority said the episode was suspected to have caused a “serious risk to energy supply and telecommunications in Finland,” and had saddled the owners of the cables with at least 60 million euros (about $70 million) in repair costs.