The top prosecutors and the heads of law enforcement agencies of Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden have set up a joint investigation group to investigate the recent incidents when internet cables on the Baltic Sea bed were damaged.
Eurojust will coordinate the new team’s activities, Lithuania’s Prosecutor General’s Office said on Wednesday.
“The establishment of a joint investigation group is one of the most effective and advanced forms of cross-border cooperation in criminal matters, enabling officials from different countries to exchange relevant data in a swift and simple manner, to partake in investigations in foreign countries, and to benefit from the financial and other assistance provided by Eurojust for the operation of such a group,” the statement reads.
The agreement to establish the JIT was signed on November 26.
A pre-trial investigation into the damage of an internet cable between Lithuania and Sweden is being carried out in Lithuania under the Criminal Code article stipulating criminal liability for terrorism.
On November 18, Telia Lietuva, the Swedish telecoms company’s Lithuanian arm, reported that one of the three Baltic Sea communication cables between Sweden and Lithuania was damaged on November 17, which was later confirmed by officials in Stockholm.
On the same day, Finnish operator Cinia reported that a cable linking Helsinki and the German port of Rostock had been severed for unknown reasons.
Subsequently, Germany and Finland announced that they had launched an investigation into the incident and warned of the threat of “hybrid warfare”.
Lithuanian politicians initially suggested the incidents were linked to Russian sabotage. The country’s President Gitanas Nausėda said it was too early to draw any conclusions about the causes of these incidents.
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