Travel ban issued to Captain of troubled tanker

MT New Diamond Captain Sterio Ilias (right)outside Colombo Magistrate’s Court yesterday

• Court decides not to remand tanker Captain despite AG request 
• Case to be taken up again on 12 Oct. 

By T. Farook Thajudeen and Asiri Fernando

The Colombo Magistrate’s Court yesterday imposed a travel ban on the Captain of the troubled crude oil tanker MT New Diamond. 

The Colombo Magistrate Mohamed Mihar ordered the Controller General of the Immigration and Emigration to issue a travel ban for Captain Sterio Ilias, rejecting a request by the Attorney General to remand the Captain of the MT New Diamond. 

The State charged that Captain Ilias had failed to take necessary measures to douse the fire when it erupted aboard the super tanker and had not alerted the relevant authorities in due time. 

Deputy Solicitor General of the State Dileepa Peiris also charged that Ilias had concealed information regarding the fire, pointing out that the actions of the tanker’s Captain were in breach of the Marine Pollution Prevention Act. Further, Peiris charged the Captain and crew with negligence over the abandoning of the tanker, noting that an expert report led by the Marine Environmental Protection Agency (MEPA) had concluded that fuel oil leaking from the MT New Diamond had polluted the sea around Sri Lanka.

The defence argued that the Magistrate’s Court did not have jurisdiction to remand the Capt. Ilias and that he was not listed as a suspect. Counsel Nipuna Wimalarathne appearing for the defence, stressed that the Captain and crew of the tanker had taken every effort to douse the fire and that they had not abandoned the vessel when the fire broke out. The case will be heard again on 12 October. 

Meanwhile, the owner of the MT New Diamond has agreed to settle an interim bill of Rs. 440 million to the Government of Sri Lanka for cost incurred in responding to the tanker fire. A cost assessment of the environmental impact could take months to draft, a senior Government official told the Daily FT.  

The MT New Diamond was 38 nm (70 km) off Sangamankada Point on the east coast when the distress call was issued on 1 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 after a suspected boiler explosion in the engine room.