A Finnish court has denied a request for the release of the oil tanker Eagle S, which is suspected of damaging an undersea power line and four telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea. The tanker, carrying Russian oil, was seized by Finland on December 26 after allegedly dragging its anchor across the seabed, causing damage to the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power line and telecoms cables. The vessel, owned by United Arab Emirates-based Caravella LLC FZ, remains under seizure as the court rejected a motion for its release.
The Finnish lawyer representing Caravella, Herman Ljungberg, stated that the company plans to file a new motion for the vessel’s release. Baltic Sea nations are on high alert following a series of outages of power cables, telecom links, and gas pipelines since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. NATO has announced plans to increase its presence in the region. The Finnish customs service suspects that the Eagle S is part of a shadow fleet of aging tankers used to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil.
The vessel, registered in the Cook Islands, is currently located in a bay near Finland’s port of Porvoo. Finnish police are collecting evidence and questioning the crew, who are Georgian and Indian citizens. Eight crew members are considered suspects in the investigation. The situation remains tense in the Baltic Sea region as authorities work to address the damage caused by the tanker and prevent further disruptions.
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