2 held for attempted sabotage on German naval ship

Arrest warrants have been executed for two men on suspicion of attempted sabotage on a ship intended for the German Navy, reported dpa.

The arrests took place in Hamburg and in Greece, the Hamburg Public Prosecutor's Office announced on Tuesday. The suspects are reportedly a 37-year-old Romanian man and a 54-year-old Greek man.

The homes of the accused in Hamburg, Romania and Greece were also searched, the office said.

In addition to the European judicial authority Eurojust in The Hague, the Hamburg State Criminal Police Office was involved in the arrests as well as Greek and Romanian law enforcement agencies.

The two suspects are said to have carried out acts of sabotage on several corvettes last year during their work in the port of Hamburg. The ships were located on a shipyard site and were intended for the German Navy.

Significant damage feared

Acting alone and sometimes together, the men are believed to have introduced over 20 kilograms of blasting grit into the engine block of one of the ships, punctured fresh water supply lines, removed fuel tank caps and deactivated safety switches for the ship's electronics.

If the respective acts of sabotage had gone undetected, they could have led to significant damage to the ships or at least to their delayed departure, thereby potentially endangering the security of the Federal Republic of Germany and the operational capability of the troops, prosecutors said.

The evaluation of the secured evidence is ongoing, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office.

As part of the investigation, the question of whether the accused had been contracted to carry out the sabotage is also being examined.

Incidents on corvette Emden subject of investigation

Inspector of the Navy Jan Christian Kaack reported in February last year that saboteurs had deliberately caused damage to warships in Germany on more than one occasion.

"There is destruction, that is, sabotage, on more than one unit," the vice admiral said at the Navy Talks event in Berlin. Corresponding measures have reportedly been taken in the shipyards.

Public broadcasters WDR and NDR, and the broadsheet Süddeutsche Zeitung reported at the time that the Emden, built by the Hamburg shipyard Blohm+Voss but initially not delivered to the navy, was a target of sabotage.

A spokeswoman for the Public Prosecutor's Office told dpa that the incidents on the Emden are the subject of the investigation, but the arrest warrant relates to an alleged act on another ship.