Sweden investigates Russian captain of stateless ship in Swedish waters

STOCKHOLM, March 13 - Sweden's prosecution authority is investigating the captain of a stateless vessel in Swedish waters of the Baltic Sea, it said on Friday, after the coastguard boarded and took control of the ship in the second such incident in under a week.

The captain, a Russian citizen, is being investigated on suspicions of the use of false documents, serious crimes and violations of Sweden's maritime act, the prosecution authority said.

"What we are doing now is, among other things, to continue with the search on board, conduct interrogations and investigate suspected false documents," senior prosecutor Adrien Combier-Hogg said in a statement.

So far, no one has been detained in the case, he added.

The 228-meter-long (250 yards) tanker Sea Owl I was flying the Comorian flag, and the coastguard on Thursday said it suspected the ship was sailing under a false flag. The ship is also on the sanctions list of several countries, including the EU.

"The threats to maritime safety and the environment are too high," Daniel Stenling, deputy chief of operations at the coastguard, said on Thursday. "Therefore, there is reason to intervene against the vessel."

Sweden's minister for civil defence, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, said in a post on X that the ship was suspected of belonging to the Russian shadow fleet.

The boarding took place off the coast of the southern Swedish town of Trelleborg.

Russia has called seizure of its vessels an act of piracy.

The Russian embassy in Sweden said on Friday it was closely monitoring the situation, Russia's state-run TASS news agency reported, citing Russia's ambassador to Sweden Sergei Belyaev.

"A request has been sent to the Swedish side asking them to confirm the presence of Russians on board the vessel, to provide information about their legal status and, if necessary, to ensure that our consular staff can communicate with them," Belyaev said.

Last Friday, the Swedish coastguard boarded the ship Caffa, which was sailing under a Guinean flag, also near Trelleborg. REUTERS