AG indicts troubled oil tanker Captain

Indian Coast Guard pollution control vessel Samudra Prahari (CG-201) escorts the troubled super tanker MT New Diamond as she is towed to the port of Fujairah – Pic courtesy ICG 

The Attorney General (AG) Dappula de Livera yesterday indicted the Captain of the troubled crude oil tanker MT New Diamond, Capt. Sterio Ilias, on charges of oil spill and failure to report an oil spill. 

The indictment was filed at the Colombo High Court yesterday. 

MT New Diamond, Capt. Sterio Ilias

Capt. Ilias is in violation of Section 26 and 38 of the Marine Environmental Protection Authority Act, AG’s Coordinating Secretary State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne said. The Colombo Magistrate’s Court last month imposed a travel ban on the Captain of the troubled crude oil tanker MT New Diamond, having turned down request by the AG to remand Capt. Ilias. 

The legal action comes in the wake of the owners of the MT New Diamond having settled an interim claim of Rs. 442 million for expenses borne by the Government in responding to the fire on board the vessel last month.  The payments received by the Government were for the rescue and fire-fighting effort undertaken by Sri Lanka and does not include any payments for marine pollution which has occurred, Jayaratne told the media earlier this week.  The crippled tanker is being towed to the Port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) presently. The Sri Lanka Navy handed over escort duties of the crude oil tanker to the Indian and Maldivian Coast Guard as the vessel exited the Sri Lanka maritime search and rescue area of responsibility on Wednesday, the Navy said. 

The Maldivian National Defence Force took to Twitter stating that the vessel was in its area of responsibility and being towed to Fujairah. “@MNDF_Official – Oct 7 MRCC Male will take over coordinating authority from MRCC Colombo as the fire damaged MT New Diamond transits on tow through our search and rescue region. MNDF CG is closely monitoring the transit and are well prepared to respond in the event of an incident during this transit,” the MNDF tweeted.  The MT New Diamond was 38 nautical miles (70 km) off Sangamankada Point on the east coast when the distress call was issued on 2 September. The 20-year-old Panamanian-registered super tanker (330 m long) was carrying a consignment of 270,000 MT of crude oil for the Indian Oil Company from a port in Kuwait to the Indian Port of Paradip when the fire broke out.

A week-long multinational effort saw the Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Russian Navy, Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard vessels and aircraft aided by tugs from Sri Lanka and overseas work in coordination to douse the fire on-board the super tanker and to tow the adrift vessel safely away from the Sri Lankan coast. (AF)