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By Essi Lehto
HELSINKI (Reuters) -A Finnish court on Friday denied a request for the release of an oil tanker suspected by police of damaging an undersea power line and four telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea last week.
Finland on Dec. 26 seized the Eagle S tanker carrying Russian oil on suspicion that it damaged the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power line and the telecoms cables the previous day by dragging its anchor across the seabed.
Baltic Sea nations are on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. NATO said last week it would boost its presence in the region.
A lawyer representing United Arab Emirates-based Caravella LLC FZ, which owns the tanker, had sought the release of the vessel and crew.
"This district court has rejected the claim of the defendant, which means that this seizure remains in force," Helsinki District Court Judge Tatu Koistinen said.
Finnish lawyer Herman Ljungberg, who represented Caravella, said the company now planned to file a new motion for the vessel's release.
Finland's National Bureau of Investigation has impounded the vessel and the Finnish customs office has seized its cargo of 35,000 tonnes of unleaded petrol while it investigates whether sanctions against Russia have been breached.
The customs service believes the Eagle S is part of a shadow fleet of ageing tankers being used to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil.
Ljungberg, who has accused Finland of capturing the Eagle S in international waters, said on Friday that his legal filing had sought transparency on where the seizure took place, but that this had been turned down by the court.
The owners of the cargo also plan to seek its release, the lawyer said.
He declined to name any owners but said none were Russian.
The Eagle S vessel, which is registered in the Cook Islands, was brought to a bay near Finland's port of Porvoo where police are currently collecting evidence and questioning the crew who are Georgian and Indian citizens.
Finnish police have said eight crew members are suspects in the investigation.
(Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Terje Solsvik and Tomasz Janowski)
