Two Swedish men face fine for violating maritime grave of M/S Estonia
Two men appeared in a court on Monday in Sweden on charges of violating a maritime grave site by diving near the wreck of a Baltic Sea passenger ferry that sank in 1994, claiming 852 lives.
The two defendants, Henrik Evertsson and Linus Andersson, denied any wrongdoing.
In her closing statement, prosecutor Helene Gestrin called for a suspended sentence and that the duo be fined.
If convicted, the two men could face fines or up to two years in prison. The court ruling is due on February 8.
Gestrin rejected the defence's argument that they were engaged in journalistic research, the Goteborgs-Posten newspaper reported from the district court in Gothenburg.
Their actions constituted a violation of the grave site, which is protected by law without any exemptions for journalists, the prosecutor said.
"I never thought it would end up like this," Evertsson told the court, the daily reported.
"It was key for me not to disturb the grave site. The aim was to film the hull... we were never inside the vessel," he said.
Evertsson and Andersson were part of a film crew making a documentary about the sinking of the M/S Estonia. They used a remotely operated vehicle to film the wreck in September 2019, but were detected by a Finnish Border Guard vessel.
Two large holes in the hull
Footage from the dive appeared in a recent documentary and showed previously-unseen images of two large holes in the hull of the M/S Estonia, sparking renewed interest in what is considered Europe's worst maritime disaster since World War II.
The ferry was en route from Tallinn, Estonia, to Stockholm when a storm ripped off the bow door on 28 September 1994. Of the 989 people on board, only 137 survived the ordeal.
Most of the bodies were never recovered. An international agreement declared the wreck a grave site in 1995. Finland, Estonia, Poland, Russia and Sweden have signed the agreement.
After the footage was released in September, Estonia, Finland and Sweden said they would conduct a joint investigation led by Estonia, the ship's flag state.
Sweden recently started amending a law banning diving at the wreck.
Evertsson has said the dive was necessary, citing public interest in outstanding questions about the disaster. In November, he was awarded a Swedish journalism prize for "Scoop of the Year."
The M/S Estonia wreck lies in international waters in the Baltic Sea about 100 kilometres south of the Finnish port of Turku.