Sweden opens "sabotage" investigation into severed Baltic Sea fibre-optic cables

FRANCE 24

19 November 2024 at 4:40 am·1-min read

Sweden opened a probe Tuesday into “sabotage” after two undersea fibre-optic cables in the Baltic Sea were cut, including one linking Finland and Germany. The incident recalled other previous acts of sabotage in the same waterway, including the 2022 explosions of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority said Tuesday that it had opened an investigation into "sabotage" after two undersea Baltic Sea cables were cut, one linking Lithuania and Sweden and one linking Finland and Germany.

"The offence is currently being investigated as sabotage. The preliminary investigation is ongoing and at an early stage. There is no further information to share about the investigation at this time," prosecutor Henrik Soderman said in a statement just hours after neighbouring Finland said it had also opened a police investigation.

“No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally. I also don’t want to believe in versions that these were anchors that accidentally caused damage over these cables,” German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday before a meeting with EU defence ministers in Brussels.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)

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