The captain of the Hong Kong-registered container ship New Polar Bear, Wan Wenguo, has been assigned a lawyer after appearing in a Hong Kong court without representation. He faces charges related to "criminal damage" caused to a natural gas pipeline and telecommunications cables between Finland and Estonia on October 8, 2023. The judge postponed the case until September 26 to allow the prosecution to gather evidence from Finnish and Estonian authorities.
Wan, a 43-year-old Chinese citizen, faces additional charges for violations of maritime regulations, including the international convention on safety at sea. He remained in custody after declining to apply for bail during his first hearing in May and again on Friday.
The Baltic Sea region has heightened security concerns regarding potential sabotage since the onset of the Ukraine conflict in early 2022. While some European nations have attributed infrastructure damage to Russian aggression, Moscow denies these allegations, suggesting that Western nations seek to undermine Russian interests through misinformation.
Finnish authorities report that the New Polar Bear may have severed underwater assets by dragging its anchor. Investigators are still assessing whether the incident was accidental or intentional.
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