Finnish court jails Fitburg captain and bosun over Baltic cable sabotage

Helsinki District Court has sentenced the Russian captain of the general cargo ship Fitburg to three and a half years in prison for deliberately damaging two subsea telecommunications cables in the Gulf of Finland. The verdict, delivered in a case rooted in a 130-kilometre anchor-dragging incident on New Year's Eve 2025, marks Finland's most consequential criminal ruling to date on Baltic infrastructure sabotage.

The court convicted Captain Andrei Maksimenko and Azerbaijani bosun Vusal Majidov of aggravated criminal damage, handing the bosun a sentence of two years and 10 months. Both men, who had operated under travel bans throughout the proceedings, were taken into custody immediately and ordered to pay compensation for the damage to the subsea infrastructure.

The case centres on the St Vincent and the Grenadines-flagged Fitburg, intercepted by Finnish authorities on 31 December 2025 while sailing from St Petersburg to Israel with a cargo of steel products. Investigators established that the vessel dragged its damaged anchor and chain along the seabed for roughly 130 kilometres — a distance comparable to the length of the Gulf of Finland itself.

The dragging anchor severed two telecommunications cables operated by Elisa and Arelion Finland. It also crossed seven other telecommunications and power cables plus a gas pipeline, exposing a far wider band of critical infrastructure to potential damage.

What did the court find?

The evidence placed the anchor's release after the Fitburg departed St Petersburg but before it left Russian territorial waters. Prosecutors did not claim that Maksimenko personally ordered the anchor lowered, yet the court ruled that both men must have known it was dragging as the vessel continued its voyage.

The judgment also singled out the bosun's conduct in the final phase. Majidov, the court found, actively contributed to the ship continuing for around two hours after Finnish authorities first made contact with the vessel.

Both defendants denied any wrongdoing. They challenged Finland's jurisdiction on the grounds that the damage occurred outside Finnish territorial waters. The court rejected that argument, ruling that Finnish courts could hear the case because the offences were intentional and their consequences were felt in Finland.

The court dismissed a separate count of aggravated interference with telecommunications against both men, reasoning that it was already covered by the aggravated criminal damage conviction.

Why does the ruling matter for Baltic shipping?

The verdict sharpens the legal exposure facing crews and operators on the Baltic's dense network of subsea cables and pipelines. Vessels linked to infrastructure damage now face not only detention and flag-state complications but criminal prosecution under an expansive reading of Finnish jurisdiction — one that reaches incidents beyond the country's own territorial waters.

The precedent invites comparison with the separate case of the Cook Islands-flagged tanker Eagle S, whose crew faced charges over damage to five undersea cables in December 2024. Helsinki District Court initially dismissed that case on jurisdictional grounds in October 2025, but an appeals court overturned the dismissal in August this year and ordered a retrial. The Fitburg ruling suggests the lower court's jurisdictional reasoning has now hardened into practice.

For shipowners, the message is blunt: subsea infrastructure incidents in the Baltic carry individual criminal liability, and courts will infer knowledge from a vessel's behaviour rather than require proof of explicit orders.

What comes next?

The ruling is not final. The captain's lawyer has indicated he intends to appeal, and the bosun is also considering a challenge, meaning Finland's highest courts will likely have to settle how far national jurisdiction stretches over sabotage committed in international waters.