HONG KONG, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The Chinese captain of a Hong Kong‑registered cargo ship pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a charge of criminal damage, following allegations that his vessel damaged undersea cables in the Baltic Sea.
Wan Wenguo, 44, the captain of the container ship NewNew Polar Bear, is alleged to have damaged an underwater natural gas pipeline and submarine telecom cables between Finland and Estonia on October 8, 2023, according to a Hong Kong charge sheet reviewed by Reuters.
The charge sheet stated that Wan had been "reckless" and "without lawful excuse damaged the property belonging to another".
Finnish investigators said the container vessel had dragged its anchor to sever the Balticconnector gas pipeline. Finnish police later retrieved a broken anchor from the seabed near the pipeline, and technical examinations showed it belonged to the container vessel that was missing a front anchor.
A lawyer for Wan, Jerry Chung, earlier said 18 prosecution witnesses would be called to testify in the case that includes one charge of criminal damage, as well as two charges of failing to ensure the ship complied with safety requirements under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea.
Wan also pleaded not guilty to those two charges.
These witnesses include crew members, Hong Kong officials, and experts in maritime matters, Chung added.
The Baltic Sea region has been on high alert for sabotage after a series of outages involving power cables, gas pipelines and telecom links since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. NATO has boosted its military presence with frigates, aircraft and naval drones.
(Reporting by James Pomfret and Greg Torode in Hong Kong; Anne Kauranen in Helsinki; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree, Christopher Cushing and Kim Coghill)
