Finnish Court Jails Russian Captain for Three and a Half Years: Freighter Fitburg Dragged Its Anchor About 130 km, Severing Two Subsea Cables
HELSINKI — A Finnish court on November 5 jailed the Russian captain of the freighter Fitburg for three years and six months and an Azerbaijani crew member for two years and ten months for aggravated criminal damage over the severing of two subsea telecommunications cables in the Gulf of Finland, Reuters reported. The Helsinki District Court found that on New Year's Eve 2025 the two men acted intentionally as the ship dragged its anchor and anchor chain along the seabed for about 130 kilometres, cutting two cables linking Helsinki and Tallinn, Estonia.
The 132-metre, St Vincent and the Grenadines-flagged Fitburg was seized by Finnish authorities in the Gulf of Finland on December 31, 2025, while sailing from St Petersburg, Russia, to Haifa, Israel, carrying steel products. Investigators found that the damaged anchor and chain, besides severing two cables belonging to Elisa and Arelion Finland, also crossed seven other telecommunications and power cables and a gas pipeline, creating a risk of further damage. A separate prosecution charge of interfering with telecommunications was dropped by the court as duplicative of the damage conviction.
The court ordered the two men to jointly pay about 1.9 million euros in damages, with the captain to pay about 85,000 euros more, and ordered both taken into custody immediately, ending the travel bans under which they had remained in Finland. The captain's lawyer said he would appeal; the crew member's lawyer said no decision had been made. Subsea cables in the Baltic Sea have been damaged repeatedly in recent years: the crew of another tanker, the Eagle S, faced charges over damage to five undersea cables in December 2024 in a separate case.
(Source: Reuters)
Source: Reuters
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：货船 Fitburg 号（资料图）。Cavernia 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The freighter Fitburg (file photo). By Cavernia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
