Chinese captain in Baltic sea cable damage case appears in Hong Kong court
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The captain of container ship NewNew Polar Bear appeared in Hong Kong’s Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on July 4.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Captain Wan Wenguo, of the NewNew Polar Bear, was assigned a lawyer in Hong Kong court regarding alleged damage to undersea cables.
- Wan faces charges of "criminal damage" to a gas pipeline and telecom cables between Finland and Estonia in October 2023.
- The case was adjourned until September 26 as the prosecution gathers evidence from Finnish and Estonian authorities, and Wan remains in custody.
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HONG KONG – The captain of a Hong Kong-registered ship alleged to have damaged undersea cables in the Baltic Sea was assigned a lawyer in a Hong Kong court on July 4, with the case adjourned until September to allow the prosecution to gather more evidence.
Wan Wenguo, the captain of container ship NewNew Polar Bear, appeared in Hong Kong’s Eastern Magistrates’ Courts without legal representation and so was assigned a duty lawyer by the court.
The 43-year-old Chinese national is alleged to have caused “criminal damage” to an underwater natural gas pipeline and submarine telecom cables between Finland and Estonia on Oct 8, 2023, according to a Hong Kong charge sheet seen by Reuters.
The document added that the defendant “without lawful excuse damaged the property belonging to another” and that he had been “reckless as to whether such property would be damaged”.
The magistrate adjourned the case for three months until Sept 26, after the prosecution said it required time to gather documents and other evidence from Finnish and Estonian authorities.
Wan also faces two other charges for alleged violations of shipping rules, including the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea.
During Wan’s first hearing in May after his arrest, he made no application for bail and was remanded in custody. Wan again chose not to apply for bail on July 4 and was taken into detention.
The Baltic Sea region has been on high alert for sabotage after a string of outages of power cables, gas pipelines and telecoms since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022.
Some European governments have accused Russia of hybrid attacks and sabotage of some critical infrastructure, but Moscow has denied such claims, saying the West is seeking to undermine Russian interests through an information war.
Finnish authorities allege that the NewNew Polar Bear severed the subsea gas pipeline, the Balticconnector, which links Finland and Estonia under the Baltic Sea, by dragging its anchor along the seabed.
Estonian police, meanwhile, suspect the ship also damaged telecoms cables connecting Estonia to Finland and Sweden on Oct 7-8, before hitting the gas pipeline on its way to a port near St Petersburg in Russia.
Finnish and Estonian investigators, however, have been unable to determine whether the damage was accidental or deliberate, and have not yet provided their conclusions. REUTERS
