Further to our earlier post regarding the Belgian seizure of the tanker, the Ethera, it is now being reported that 45 infractions have been identified in relation to the flag status and condition of the vessel.
It is also being reported that these infractions will need to be rectified before the vessel will be released and that a €10m payment will need to be made. Different reports (here, here and here) describe this payment as a bond, a bail payment, or a fine.
On Saturday night a combined operation of the Belgian and French military (see here and here) saw the seizure of the sanctioned “shadow fleet” tanker the Ethera in the North Sea.
The tanker has since been brought to Zeebrugge .
It is being reported that a criminal investigation has been opened, and it is alleged that the vessel was falsely claiming to have a Guinea flag.
The vessel’s captain, reported as a Russian national, has been questioned.
Further to our post from last week regarding the prosecution of a Russian national in Belgium, for Russian sanctions breaches, it is now being reported that the prosecution is targeting three individuals.
The second suspect is the son of Viktor Labin (the first defendant). He is said to be currently living in Russia and the subject of an international arrest warrant.
The third suspect is currently out in bail.
The dual-use goods said to have been exported to Russia include iron, alumina, yttrium oxide, and explosive propagation detectors.
Following a raid conducted in June 2025, the Belgian authorities have detained Russian national Viktor Labin pending investigation of alleged breaches of Russian sanctions.
It is now being reported that trial in the prosecution is scheduled to begin on 26 February 2026.
It is alleged that he was responsible for exporting machinery and devices for use by the Russian military or in manufacturing.
Although one of the filters on this blog is “custodial sentence”, I thought it might be helpful to collect all the examples in one place.
As such, here is the full list of custodial sentences that have been imposed across Europe for sanctions offences since 2017. Please note this excludes suspended sentences.
2017:
2018:
2019:
2020:
2021:
2022:
2023:
2024:
Overall the figures are dominated by the Netherlands and Germany with approximately 68 of the 80 years of sentences between them. Indeed, as the graph below demonstrates, other than Finland’s 40-day sentence for breaching a travel ban, the Netherlands and Germany are the only European countries to have sent someone to prison for sanctions offences since 2019.
With the recent news that Finland has increased the number of its ongoing investigations, Europe (meaning the EU, the UK, Switzerland, etc) has reached the milestone of over 2,000 ongoing and public sanctions enforcement investigations being undertaken by regulators and prosecutors.
No doubt there are other investigations which are ongoing in the countries shown on the graph, and no doubt there are investigations ongoing in countries not shown and which remain confidential.
How many of these will be dropped due to inconclusive evidence or exculpatory evidence, and how many will lead to a conviction or fine or acquittal is impossible to say.
It is, without question, an unprecedented level of enforcement.
On Friday the Antwerp Public Prosecutor’s office announced that it conducted six raids and arrested four individuals in relation to suspected breaches of the EU’s trade sanctions relating to Russian diamonds.
It is being reported that the investigation arose after the seizure of a cargo of diamonds on February, and that a total of three shipments had been seized with a reported value of over €8 million.
It has been reported today that the Belgian authorities, after a tip-off from unnamed US “agencies” have conducted searches at homes and business addresses in Knokke-Heist and Eeklo.
The Belgian government announcement is here.
Related search and arrests took place in the Netherlands (see our related post) at the same time, and in total across both countries six have been arrested, four of whom were arrested in Belgium
The allegations relate to the export of products and technology to Russia.
The Antwerp Public Prosecutor’s Office has conducted three raids and seized $1.5m in diamonds suspected to have been the result of circumvention of the EU’s Russian sanctions.
A criminal investigation has been launched and a court-appointed expert been put in place.
The Belgian Minister of Finance has issued a statement regarding Belgian efforts to enforce the EU’s sanctions against Russia.
Included, is confirmation that 19 reports have been referred to the public prosecutor’s office, and that a further 15 such other such reports are being prepared.
No further information on the nature of the alleged offending was included.
