Previously, the Ukrainian prosecutor's office turned to the Swedish Ministry of Justice with a request for international legal assistance.
Points of attention
- Sweden arrested the CAFFA vessel suspected of stealing Ukrainian grain, marking the first time a foreign court acted on the request of the Ukrainian prosecutor's office.
- The Prosecutor General of Ukraine highlighted that the vessel systematically violated procedures to harm Ukrainian interests, using false registration to cover its activity.
Sweden arrested the CAFFA vessel for transporting Ukrainian products from TOT
For the first time, Sweden, at the request of the UCP, arrested a ship suspected of stealing Ukrainian grain.
Today, a court in Sweden arrested the vessel CAFFA, which may have been involved in the illegal export of Ukrainian products from the temporarily occupied territory, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko announced.
He noted that this is the first time that a foreign court has seized such a vessel following a request from the Ukrainian prosecutor's office for international legal assistance.
Kravchenko recalled that according to the investigation, the CAFFA vessel systematically violated the procedure for entering and leaving the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine in order to harm the interests of the state.
To hide this activity, a false registration scheme was used: the ship is marked as Guinea False in international databases.
On March 12, the Prosecutor General's Office requested international legal assistance from the Ministry of Justice of the Kingdom of Sweden. The Ukrainian side requested to search the vessel, interrogate the captain and crew members, and arrest CAFFA.
Yes, the Swedish competent authorities promptly began executing the request, and the very next week after receiving it, the vessel was searched and witnesses were questioned.
Kravchenko stated that today this process received an important procedural extension — the court approved the arrest of the vessel.
This is a concrete result of international legal cooperation between Ukraine and our partners. Daily work, exchange of information, collection and transfer of additional evidence yielded a result: the ship was arrested.
The Prosecutor General added that this case sends a clear signal that no manipulations with flags, routes, or registration will help avoid responsibility.
