EAGLE S

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Latest news

No criminal investigation against crew in connection with cargo

There was no basis for a criminal investigation into the crew of the tanker "Eagle S" in connection with the shipment of Russian oil, the Finnish customs service stated on Jan 16. The ship is believed to be part of the Russian shadow fleet, which is circumventing Western sanctions against Russia's lucrative oil exports. The customs service has seized the oil. The Finnish authority reiterated that the ship's cargo consisted of products that are subject to sanctions. However, the ship is only in Finnish waters because the crew was asked to sail there by the authorities. Therefore, they have not deliberately acted in violation of the sanctions, the customs service clarified. It is not clear what consequences this may have for the crew in this case.

No criminal investigation for sanctioned cargo - shipowner lost bid to get back confiscated anchor

The 'Eagle S' has brought fuel covered by sanctions against Russia into Finnish waters, but there will be no criminal investigation, Customs said. The cargo includes unleaded gasoline and diesel, both of which are covered by sanctions against Russia. The Finnish Customs' Economic Crime Investigation Unit has therefore initiated a preliminary investigation to investigate whether the 'Eagle S' has violated sanctions legislation. Now it has been announced that there will be no criminal investigation. Although the ship brought in sanctioned goods, it was not done intentionally, but rather the ship entered Finnish territorial waters because the authorities urged the crew to do just that. The Deputy Prosecutor General has also been consulted in the case. The cargo will be detained by Customs until further notice. On Jan 15, the shipowner lost a bid to take back the ship's anchor, which Finnish authorities found on the seabed near the cable breaks. Finland's National Bureau of Investigation believes that it has evidence connecting the 'Eagle S' to the outage, when Fingrid's EstLink 2 power transmission cable and four subsea telecom cables suddenly shut down. The vessel would have caused more cable damage within 12 minutes if it had not been stopped. Possible additional targets could have included the Estlink 1 subsea cable and the Balticconnector gas pipeline, which was previously hit by an anchor-drag incident in 2023. Shortly after the anchor was recovered and brought ashore for forensic analysis, the vessel's attorney filed a court appeal to force the police to release it to the shipowner, the UAE-based Caravella LLC FZ. Herman Ljungberg, counsel for Caravella, told YLE that Finnish police had no jurisdiction over the vessel or her anchor. Since both were in international waters at the time they were taken into custody, he asserted, Finland's law enforcement reach did not extend to either. The court disagreed with this interpretation and ruled in favour of the NBI, and the anchor will remain in custody. The bureau's attorneys argued successfully that Finnish law gives them jurisdiction when international acts target Finland,for example, when a ship cuts an international cable that connects to Finnish soil. Ljungberg said that he would appeal the matter to the Court of Appeal and attempt to regain full control of the ship and the lost anchor. If the legal process takes too long, the 'Eagle S' may get trapped in the Baltic Sea's ice season, and would be exposed to conditions for which the vessel was not designed; given that the ship costs about $15,000 per day in upkeep, The anonymous single-ship holding company may simply abandon her and walk away. Even if the owner leaves the ship behind and stops paying for wages and operating expenses, the nine crew members who are suspected of involvement in the cable incident must remain. They are confined to the ship and are under a travel ban to prevent them from leaving the country while the inquiry continues.

Lawyer: Dubai based owner may abandon detained tanker

The Dubai based company Caravella LLC FZ, which is the registered owner of the 'Eagle S', may decide to abandon its vessel, the company’s lawyer Herman Ljungberg said. He claimed Finnish authorities had “no jurisdiction whatsoever to board the vessel and conduct investigations”, citing the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Article 27.5. The Helsinki Police Department, which was leading the police investigation, stated that the police and Coastguard operation took place in Finnish territorial waters, and the entered Finland’s territorial waters on its own. Officials boarded the vessel in Finnish territorial waters. Article 27 says that criminal jurisdiction should not be exercised on board a foreign ship passing through territorial waters, except if the consequences extend to the coastal state. The Estlink2 power cable, which connects Finland and Estonia, is still out of action after the suspected sabotage of the tanker.