Helsinki court jails two Fitburg crew members over subsea cable damage

Helsinki District Court has sentenced the captain and boatswain of the cargo ship Fitburg to unconditional prison terms for aggravated sabotage over the cable damage last New Year's Eve in the Gulf of Finland.

The Russian captain, Andrei Maksimenko , received a sentence of three and a half years. The Azerbaijani boatswain, Vusal Majidov , was sentenced to two years and ten months.

Yle is naming the two men because the case is of significant public interest.

The court ruled that the two men must have known the anchor was down while the ship was moving at sea. It found that it had jurisdiction to hear the case, saying the offences were intentional and that their effects were felt in Finland.

More specifically, the court found the two men responsible for the ship dragging its anchor chain along the seabed for 130 kilometres over several hours on the morning of last New Year's Eve, in the Gulf of Finland. The drag damaged two subsea telecommunications cables. It also risked damage to seven other telecommunications and power cables and a gas pipeline.

The captain and boatswain have denied committing a crime and asked the district court to dismiss the charges.

The ruling is not final and can be appealed.

The Fitburg case has striking similarities with the Eagle S, which is also suspected of damaging undersea cables in the Gulf of Finland — a year earlier, over Christmas 2024.