Germany drops probe into sabotage of naval vessel for lack of evidence

A probe into sabotage of a German naval vessel in a Hamburg shipyard has been dropped for lack of evidence, prosecutors in the northern port city said on Tuesday.

Spokeswoman Mia Sperling-Karstens told dpa that Hamburg prosecutors remain convinced that corvettes were tampered with.

"However, it could not be established with the degree of certainty required to justify bringing charges which of the two suspects carried out the alleged act," she said.

A 38-year-old Romanian and a 55-year-old Greek were released in March after their arrest warrants had to be lifted. They had been arrested in Hamburg and Greece in early February.

The men were alleged to have carried out acts of sabotage on several corvettes last year while working at the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg.

They were suspected of putting more than 20 kilograms of abrasive blasting grit into the engine block of one of the vessels, puncturing fresh-water supply lines, removing fuel-tank caps and disabling circuit breakers for the electronics on the corvette Köln.

It remains unclear who was behind the tampering. In its latest annual report, the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) warned of espionage and sabotage activities originating from Russia. The German armed forces are among the institutions in Germany considered most at risk.

In January, laws targeting so-called disposable agents who carry out acts of sabotage for foreign powers were tightened.

"Disposable agent" refers to an untrained person recruited, for example, through social media and paid a small sum to cause damage.