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A Swedish court ordered the detention of the Russian captain of a tanker suspected of sailing under a false flag in the Baltic Sea, a case that Swedish prosecutors tied to alleged use of a falsified document. The commander of the Sea Owl 1 was arrested Friday, the day after Swedish coast guard authorities boarded the vessel off Trelleborg on Sweden’s southern coast, according to the Associated Press.
Prosecutors said on Sunday that the district court in Ystad ordered the captain held in custody in line with their request. Authorities did not release the commander’s name, and Swedish reporting cited that secrecy around his identity.
Swedish authorities said the tanker was sailing under the flag of Comoros, an island nation off East Africa. The coast guard, however, said it suspected the ship was not actually listed in Comoros’s shipping registry, leaving no confirmed flag state responsible for certifying safety compliance aboard the vessel.
The Sea Owl 1 is also on the EU sanctions list, Swedish officials said. The coast guard reported that the ship had been traveling from Brazil to Russia, and it previously had been used to transport oil between those two countries, while it did not appear to have cargo on Thursday when authorities boarded.
Sea Owl 1 was the second vessel that came under Swedish coast guard investigation within a week under suspicion of using a false flag. Swedish authorities also detained the captain of the cargo ship “Caffa,” which was accused of transporting stolen grain while on Ukraine’s sanctions list.
Sweden said it would step up insurance checks on foreign ships last year as part of broader efforts to tighten controls on Russia’s “shadow fleet.” Swedish officials have described the shadow fleet as older vessels used to move oil and gas or to carry stolen Ukrainian grain, often operating outside normal compliance oversight.