Baltic Sea pipelines
Swedish Nord Stream investigation to be closed
The Nord Stream 1 gas leak in the Baltic Sea, photographed from a Swedish Coast Guard aircraft. photo
© Swedish Coast Guard/dpa
Despite intensive investigations, the Swedish authorities appear to be faced with a conundrum – the investigation into the Nord Stream sabotage is about to end.
The Swedish public prosecutor’s office wants theirs According to information from several media outlets, investigations into the sabotage on the Baltic Sea pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 are expected to end shortly.
The responsible public prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist apparently wants to stop the proceedings, reported “Süddeutscher Zeitung”, NDR, WDR and “Zeit”. Apparently the Swedish authorities were unable to identify any specific suspects in their country.
Ljungqvist announced in the Swedish newspaper Expressen on Monday that he would make a decision on the matter in the coming days. The public prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday that this decision would probably be made tomorrow, Wednesday. The public prosecutor and his office left details open about the direction in which this decision would go.
German proceedings will continue
Ljungqvist’s decision will only affect the Swedish investigation – so the German proceedings will continue. As the media reported, the German authorities could even benefit from the Swedish move because the Swedes could then make their evidence available to them.
On September 26, 2022, several explosions were registered near the Danish Baltic Sea island of Bornholm and a little later four leaks were discovered in three of the four lines of the Nord Stream pipelines. Investigations were then started in Sweden, Germany and Denmark. In November 2022, Ljungqvist confirmed the suspicion that had been harbored from the beginning that it was sabotage. Analyzes showed explosive residues on several foreign bodies, he explained.
In a joint letter to the UN Security Council in the summer of 2023, the UN embassies of Germany, Denmark and Sweden wrote that investigators had discovered traces of explosives on a suspicious sailing yacht. This is said to have been used to transport the explosives used in the sabotage.