STOCKHOLM, March 7 (Reuters) – A ship seized by Sweden in its Baltic Sea waters sailed under a false flag and was suspected of violating maritime law and the national ship safety act because of its lack of seaworthiness, the Swedish police said on Saturday.
One crew member was notified about the suspected breach of the national and international laws, Johan Andersson, deputy head of police’s National Operations Department, told a press conference.
Police and coast guard on Friday took control of Guinea-flagged Caffa off southern Sweden, saying it had unclear flag status and was thus suspected of being stateless, and that they had launched a probe into suspected violation of maritime law.
“Our investigation so far strengthens our suspicions and our opinion that this ship has extensive sea safety deficiencies,” Andersson said on Saturday.
“We also have information that the vessel would be on the Ukraine sanctions list,” he said.
Most of the 11 crew members on Caffa, which according to ship-tracking service MarineTraffic is a 96-meter general cargo ship, were Russian, Andersson said.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, editing by Tomasz Janowski)
