A Finnish district court on Friday dismissed a case against the captain and two officers of the Eagle S oil tanker who were accused of breaking undersea power and internet cables in the Baltic Sea, saying Finland does not have jurisdiction to prosecute them.

"The District Court has today issued a judgment dismissing the charge in the case... along with the claims for damages arising from the charge, as it was not possible to apply Finnish criminal law to the case," the court said in a statement.

What is the Baltic cable cut case about?

The incident took place on December 25 last year when a string of cable and gas pipeline outages in the Baltic Sea prompted NATO forces in the region to to go on high alert.

The crew is accused of dragging the ship's anchor in the seabed for about 90 kilometers (56 miles), damaging five undersea cables in the Gulf of Finalnd.

Finnish prosecutors had argued that  the crew neglected their duties intentionally after leaving the Russian port of Ust-Luga.

All three crew members deny the allegations and said they were unaware that the anchor was not in order.

"If a ship drags an anchor behind it for several hours for 90 kilometers, is it really possible that no one would notice?" prosecutor Mikko Larkia had said at the start of the trial.

Why is the case important?

The December 25th incident is only one of several similar occurences over the last two years.

Some officials and experts have pointed it out as Russian sabotage. Others have called it an accident.

Russia has denied the allegations.

The Eagle S crew is believed to be a part of Russia's "shadow fleet," a group of old oil tankers operated under various flags but controlled by Moscow to bypass sanctions imposed by Europe and the US over Russia's war in Ukraine.

The case in Finland was the first attempt to convict the suspected perpetrators but the matter is complicated due to international maritime laws and difficulty in proving intent. 

Edited by: Wesley Dockery