At the beginning of September, journalist Henrik Evertsson and wreck expert and filmmaker Linus Andersson were each sentenced to 40 days’ fines by the Gothenburg district court for violating the law on the protection of grave peace after their documentary about the Estonia wreck.
Both the prosecutor and the film crew appealed the verdict, and the Court of Appeal’s verdict will be delivered on Wednesday. Chamber prosecutor Helene Gestrin wants the punishment to be tougher.
– It is forbidden to conduct diving in this area, regardless of why you do it. The journalistic interest does not remove the ban, she said after the district court’s verdict.
Re-debated
The case surrounding the documentary “Estonia – the find that changed history”, where new holes in Estonia’s hull are discovered by the documentary makers, has taken several turns.
The documentary makers, who during the recordings were in waters where international maritime law applies, were acquitted by the district court in 2021. It then considered that international legislation weighed more heavily than the national one.
However, the Court of Appeal did not agree and sent the case back to the district court because not all objections were raised, according to the higher instance. In September, the district court ruled that the men had committed a crime against the Act on the Protection of Grave Peace.
Want to be released
Both films want to be released.
– We still believe that the Estonia Act does not apply in this case, Linus Andersson said immediately after the district court’s verdict.
He is also adamant that there would have been no other way to document the wreck than the way they did.