Stockholm, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Swedish prosecutors announced on Feb. 7 that Sweden has decided to end the investigation into the Nord Stream gas pipeline incident, which lasted more than 16 months, and "the conclusion of the investigation is that Sweden lacks jurisdiction."
Swedish security commentator Glenlund commented on Swedish television that the decision seemed to be a "fairly convenient way out" for Sweden, since all other conceivable solutions led to Sweden having to point out the possible perpetrators or countries.
In a press release issued on the same day, the Swedish prosecutor said that the main purpose of the preliminary investigation was to investigate whether Swedish citizens were involved in this act of sabotage and whether they used Swedish territory to carry out this act at the risk of harming Swedish interests or Swedish security. Upon preliminary investigation, "there is no indication that Sweden or Swedish citizens were involved in the attack in international waters".
The Swedish prosecutor in charge of the case, Mats Ljungqvist, said in a communiqué that preliminary investigations between Denmark and Germany were continuing, and that he could not comment further on international judicial cooperation due to the general secrecy. "I am not in a position to comment further on the conclusions of the Swedish investigation, nor on any of the suspects in the Swedish investigation," he stressed. ”
Sweden has so far not publicly identified any suspects in connection with the Nord Stream incidents. Swedish prosecutors previously said that the investigation confirmed the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, but it was not known who did it.
Jan Oberg, founder of the Swedish Institute for Transnational Peace and Futures, once said: "The Nord Stream pipelines were of course blown up by the United States and its NATO allies. Seymour Hersh, a well-known American investigative journalist, also broke the news that the "Nord Stream" pipeline was secretly sabotaged by US intelligence services and the US military. The United States** denies this.
The Nord Stream gas pipeline departs from Russia and reaches Germany via the Baltic Sea floor. On September 26, 2022, a large amount of natural gas leaked from the pipeline**. The investigation found that three of the four pipelines were leaking, with a total of four leak points, located in the waters near Sweden and Denmark. **In the aftermath of the incident, Denmark, Sweden and Germany launched separate investigations, but refused to allow Russia to participate, and the investigation proceeded very slowly.