Swedish authorities release Bulgarian ship “Vezhen” – no sabotage in cable damage

The Bulgarian ship "Vezhen", which was detained by Swedish authorities two weeks ago on suspicion of deliberately severing an optical fiber cable in the Baltic Sea, has now been released. The investigation has determined that it was not a case of deliberate sabotage, according to a press release from the Swedish prosecutor's office.

The investigation into the cable severing between Sweden and Latvia in the Baltic Sea has made it clear that it was not a case of gross sabotage. Therefore, a decision has been made to lift the arrest of the ship suspected of being involved in the cable breaching."

The rupture of the underwater communications cable between Gotland and Latvia was found to have been "contributed to by a combination of weather conditions and deficiencies in equipment and seamanship." The investigation has been systematic and thorough to shed light on the incident, said Senior Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist of the National Security Unit of Sweden.

The Bulgarian vessel was detained on January 26, after the cable between Sweden and Latvia was ruptured. Immediately afterwards, Capt. Alexander Kalchev, the executive director of Navibulgar, the company that owns the ship, explained that the ship might have broken the cable, but this was not intentional.

Following interrogations, seizures carried out and analyzed, and inspections of the crime scene, we can say with certainty that this is not a case of sabotage. At the same time, we were able to establish that it was the detained ship that had caused the cable to break," says Mats Ljungqvist.

The investigation into the case continues.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov