The vessel, Fitburg, a 132-metre-long cargo ship, was detained on Wednesday while en route from St Petersburg, Russia, to Haifa, Israel. Finnish police also detained the ship’s 14 crew members amid suspicions that the vessel’s anchor damaged a submarine telecommunications cable connecting Helsinki and Tallinn in the Gulf of Finland.
According to Finnish Customs, preliminary findings indicate that the cargo consisted of steel products of Russian origin covered by EU sanctions. The authority carried out an inspection of the ship’s cargo late on Wednesday.
“Based on expert assessments by Finnish Customs, the structural steel in question falls under the EU’s sectoral sanctions,” the agency said in a statement, adding that the import of such sanctioned goods into the EU is prohibited under current sanctions regulations.
Finnish Customs noted that it is continuing to examine the applicability of EU sanctions legislation to the case. The steel cargo remains impounded pending further clarification, and a preliminary inquiry has been launched with a view to initiating a pre-trial investigation into a potential sanctions violation.
Separately, Finnish police confirmed that the damaged cable incident is being investigated as aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated interference with telecommunications.
The investigation is ongoing.
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