Court issues notice for captain of troubled tanker

By Asiri Fernando

The Colombo Magistrate’s Court yesterday issued notice on the captain of the troubled super tanker MT New Diamond to appear before the court on 28 September. 

The notice comes a day after Attorney General (AG) Dappula de Livera directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to summarise the evidence against the vessel’s master (Captain) in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure before a Magistrate’s Court and obtain notices to produce him before the court. 

The AG was of the opinion that there was adequate information and evidence MT New Diamond Captain Sterio Ilias had breached Articles 25, 26, 38 and 53 of the Marine Pollution Prevention Act No. 35 of 2008. 

The AG also filed an interim claim of Rs. 340 million to the ship’s owners this week to recover cost incurred to Sri Lankan respondents. A complete claim will be filed after reports from the Marine Environment Protection Agency (MEPA) and other agencies are studied. 

Notice was issued by Colombo Additional Magistrate Priyantha Liyanage following a request made by Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris, appearing on behalf of the CID. 

Peiris had informed the court that a layer of oil which leaked from the tanker was about 400 m wide and of around 2 m in depth. The oil patch was observed in the sea where the tanker was adrift. The Deputy Solicitor General had also informed the Court that sea water up to a distance of 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) was found to be polluted with due to the leakage from the New Diamond.  

The court heard that the Government Analyst’s Department had found that no crude oil had leaked in to the sea. However, the vessels fuel had leaked in to the sea. 

A week-long multinational effort lead by the Sri Lanka Navy with assistance from Indian, Russian, Sri Lanka Port Authority vessels and aircraft from the Sri Lankan Air Force and Indian Coast Guard managed to douse the fire onboard the vessel and stop leakage from the troubled tanker. 

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.