Finnish customs has decided not to initiate a criminal case over the EU-sanctioned cargo found on the Fitburg vessel.
This cargo is rolled steel, which the ship under the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines transported from St. Petersburg to Haifa.
The vessel entered Finnish territorial waters at the request of the Finnish authorities, so the customs authorities decided that this could not be considered a deliberate delivery of sanctioned products into Finnish territorial waters.
The Fitburg vessel and its crew, which consisted of 14 Russian, Georgian, Azerbaijani, and Kazakhstani citizens, were detained on December 31 on suspicion of damaging an underwater telecommunications cable in the Gulf of Finland.
According to the Finnish police, one member of the Fitburg crew was detained pending trial, and three others were banned from traveling abroad.
