Finnish court jails ship captain 3.5 years over cable damage

A Helsinki court jailed a Russian ship captain for three years and six months on Nov. 5 for damaging two undersea telecommunications cables in the Gulf of Finland, and sentenced an Azerbaijani crew member to two years and 10 months.

The Helsinki District Court found that the two men acted intentionally when the cargo ship Fitburg dragged its anchor about 130 kilometres along the seabed on Dec. 31, 2025, Reuters reported. Both were convicted of aggravated sabotage, Yle, Finland’s public broadcaster, reported.

The court ordered the two men to pay about €1.9 million (US$2.1 million) jointly, and the captain to pay about €85,000 more, Reuters reported in a version carried by gCaptain.

The ruling is not final and can be appealed, Yle reported. Reuters reported that lawyers for the captain said he will appeal, and that the crew member had not yet decided. The two men denied the charges in court, Yle reported, and the defendants had challenged Finland’s jurisdiction, according to Reuters.

Yle said the court found the men must have known the anchor was down while the ship was moving at sea. The broadcaster also reported that the drag put seven other telecommunications and power cables and a gas pipeline at risk. The damaged cables run between Finland and Estonia, Reuters reported.

The Fitburg had left St. Petersburg for Haifa, Israel, when it was seized on New Year’s Eve. Investigators said the 14 crew members were from Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, Reuters reported.

Euronews, which cited AFP as an additional source, reported that the 132-metre ship sails under the flag of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and carried steel products that Finnish customs determined in January were subject to Russia sanctions. Euronews called the charge aggravated criminal damage, a different label for the same case. Reuters and Yle used the term sabotage.

The finding of intent is what sets this verdict apart. Euronews reported that the case over the Eagle S, a tanker boarded by Finnish authorities after cable damage in December 2024, was dismissed by a Finnish court in October after prosecutors failed to prove intent. Yle noted that the Fitburg case has striking similarities with the Eagle S.

Finland has stepped up efforts to protect its undersea infrastructure after a series of cable and pipeline incidents, Reuters reported. In January 2025, Canada News Media reported on how NATO planned to watch over Baltic Sea cables and on Sweden’s seizure of a vessel after a data cable rupture.

Canada is a NATO member and leads the alliance’s multinational brigade in Latvia, on the same sea. None of the reports Canada News Media reviewed mentioned a Canadian role in this case.

Via Reuters, Yle and Euronews.

If you find reporting like this useful, consider supporting Canada News Media, an independent Canadian newsroom with no corporate parent.