Written by via aljazeera.com
Sweden has said it has closed an investigation into the 2022 explosions that crippled Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines.
Prosecutors in Stockholm announced on Wednesday that they had wrapped up their probe into the apparent attack in September 2022, nearly seven months after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The still unexplained explosions on Nord Steam’s 1 and 2 came as Europe struggled to wean itself off the huge volumes of Russian gas imports that they delivered to Germany, with the Kremlin, Ukraine and West all swapping accusations.
The Swedish authorities, who have previously said that they suspect an unknown state actor of responsibility, said that they are halting the probe after verifying that the case does not fall under its jurisdiction.
The primary purpose, public prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said, had been “to establish whether Swedish citizens were involved in the act and whether Swedish territory was used to carry out the act”.
Neither case applied he added. “Against the background of the situation we now have, we can state that Swedish jurisdiction does not apply.”
A probe by Germany’s prosecutors is still ongoing, Ljungqvist noted, adding that his team has handed over material to the German investigators.