Finnish court dismisses Eagle S Baltic cable damage case

On 3 October 2025, the Helsinki District Court dismissed the criminal case against senior officers of the tanker Eagle S, ruling that Finland had no jurisdiction over the incident.

The ship, flagged in the Cook Islands, was suspected of dragging its anchor across the seabed on 25 December 2024, damaging the Estlink 2 power cable between Finland and Estonia and several telecommunications cables. Finnish authorities seized the vessel. Prosecutors later charged the captain and two officers with aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with telecommunications.

The court found that the damage occurred in Finland's exclusive economic zone, outside its territorial waters. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, it said, jurisdiction over such incidents generally rests with the ship's flag state rather than the coastal state. The defendants had denied wrongdoing.

The ruling mattered because it exposed a legal gap in protecting undersea infrastructure beyond territorial waters. Finnish prosecutors said they would appeal, and the case became a reference point in European debates over how to hold crews and owners accountable.