On March 6, the Swedish coast guard detained the bulker “Caffa”, which was sailing under a false flag. A Swedish court has now ruled that the ship can be handed over to Ukraine.
The coast guard stopped the “Caffa” in the Baltic Sea within Swedish territorial waters off Trelleborg and took control of the ship. As the 96-metre-long freighter was presumably sailing under a false Guinean flag, the authorities launched an investigation into its unseaworthiness.
According to the coast guard, the “Caffa” was considered a stateless vessel under national and international law. The right of innocent passage therefore did not apply. The suspicion of unseaworthiness was based, among other things, on the fact that there was no recognized flag state responsible for the ship’s safety at sea.
Together with the Swedish police, coastguard forces took control of the 4,337 dwt ship and began an investigation. Information was gathered about the crew, the ship and the conditions on board.
According to several media reports, the Ystad District Court has now decided that the “Caffa” can be handed over to Ukraine. The decision is in connection with a Ukrainian investigation into suspected war crimes.
The Ukrainian authorities accuse the ship of repeatedly transporting grain from ports in the Russian-occupied Crimea. A false registration is said to have been used to conceal these activities. Ukraine therefore requested legal assistance from Sweden.
The condition for handing over the ship was that the alleged offenses were also punishable under Swedish law. “If we transfer the circumstances you describe to Swedish law, we are of the opinion that they would be classified as war crimes in Sweden,” prosecutor Håkan Larsson is quoted as saying in media reports.
The Ukrainian Public Prosecutor General’s Office saw the decision as a precedent. It was the first time that a foreign court had granted a Ukrainian request to seize a ship in connection with alleged violations of the sanctions against occupied Crimea
