A Finnish court on Friday rejected a request for the release of the oil tanker Eagle S, which is suspected of causing damage to an undersea power line and telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea last week.

On December 26, Finnish authorities seized the tanker, which was transporting Russian oil, after it was suspected of damaging the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power line and telecom cables by dragging its anchor across the seabed. The Baltic Sea region has been on high alert following a series of outages to power, telecom, and gas infrastructure since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. NATO announced last week that it would increase its presence in the area.

The tanker is owned by the United Arab Emirates-based company Caravella LLC FZ, and a lawyer representing the company had requested the release of the vessel and its crew. However, Helsinki District Court Judge Tatu Koistinen ruled that the seizure would remain in effect.

Caravella's lawyer, Herman Ljungberg, said the company would file a new motion for the release of the tanker. The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation has impounded the vessel, and Finnish customs have seized its 35,000-tonne cargo of unleaded petrol as part of an investigation into possible sanctions violations. Finnish authorities suspect that the Eagle S is part of a fleet of aging tankers used to bypass sanctions on Russian oil exports.

Ljungberg also criticized Finland for capturing the vessel in international waters, demanding transparency on the location of the seizure, though the court rejected his request. The owners of the cargo, who are not Russian, also plan to seek the release of the shipment.

The Eagle S, registered in the Cook Islands, is currently docked in a bay near Finland's Porvoo port, where police are gathering evidence and questioning the crew, who are citizens of Georgia and India. Finnish police have identified eight crew members as suspects in the ongoing investigation.