Finnish court jails Fitburg captain over Baltic cable sabotage

A Helsinki court jailed the Russian captain of the cargo ship Fitburg for three years and six months and an Azerbaijani crew member for two years and ten months for aggravated sabotage over damage to two subsea cables in the Gulf of Finland.

Why it matters: The verdict is a rare criminal conviction for Baltic seabed sabotage, in a case where Finland says the ship dragged its anchor along the seabed for about 130 kilometres, and it lands amid a string of cable and pipeline incidents in the Baltic since 2022.

Data as of Reuters report from Helsinki of November 5, 2026, carried by gCaptain and read in full in this run; sentence, damages and court findings are the Helsinki District Court's as reported. Developing item.

The Helsinki District Court sentenced the Fitburg’s Russian captain to three years and six months in prison and an Azerbaijani crew member to two years and ten months on Thursday, finding that the two acted intentionally when the ship dragged an anchor chain and anchor shank along the seabed for about 130 kilometres, damaging two subsea telecommunications cables between Helsinki and Estonia. Finland seized the Saint Vincent and Grenadines flagged vessel on December 31 last year while it was sailing from St Petersburg to Israel, and the court ordered the pair to pay about 1.9 million euros in damages jointly, with the captain to pay about 85,000 euros more.

The captain will appeal, his lawyer said, and both men have denied wrongdoing and challenged Finland’s jurisdiction in the case. The ship has since been released.

Finnish court jails Fitburg captain over Baltic cable sabotage

Sources