“This is not sabotage.” Sweden lifts arrest of ship that damaged Latvian cable

The Swedish prosecutor's office has ruled out the possibility of sabotage during the damage to the underwater communication cable of the Latvian State Radio and Television Center and has lifted the arrest from the Vezhen ship, detained after the incident. The press service of the department reported this on Monday, February 3.

“We can confidently say that this is not sabotage. At the same time, we managed to establish that the cause of the cable rupture was the arrested ship”, – said prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist.

It was determined that the cable rupture was caused by a combination of weather conditions, equipment deficiencies and seafaring skills. The Vezhen can now leave the port of Karlskrona, where it has been anchored since the incident. The investigation is ongoing.

Damage to the communication cable between Sweden and Latvia in the Baltic Sea was discovered on the night of Sunday, January 26. A preliminary investigation into the fact of sabotage has been launched, and the vessel suspected of being involved in the cable damage has been arrested.

The vessel Vezhen flies the Maltese flag and is registered in Malta. It is operated by Navigation Maritime Bulgare, one of the largest shipping companies in Bulgaria.

The company's manager said that the anchor of the Vezhen vessel was blown into the sea by the wind and this could have caused damage to the communication cable between Latvia and Sweden. However, he assured that this was unintentional.