News
New Diamond Captain to be indicted in Kalmunai High Court
The distressed oil tanker MT New Diamond’s captain is to be indicted by the Attorney General for violating the Marine Pollution Prevention (MPP) Act.
The vessel’s Greek Captain, Steiros Ilias (60) faces a variety of charges under the Act. These include causing pollution to the territorial waters, maritime zone or coastal zone of Sri Lanka, allowing for the discharge or escape of oil, harmful substances or other pollutants and failure to report discharge of oil or other pollutants.
If found guilty of all offences, Captain Ilias could face more than Rs. 50 million in fines.
As per provisions of the Act, the AG has the option to file indictments against the captain either in a High Court exercising admiralty jurisdiction, or in a zonal High Court.
In relation to the incident involving the oil tanker, the High Court exercising admiralty jurisdiction is the Commercial High Court in Colombo, while the zonal High Court is the Kalmunai High Court, since the area where the incident took place falls within the court’s jurisdiction.
The Sunday Times learns that the indictments will be filed in the Kalmunai High Court rather than in Colombo.
Meanwhile, the captain has also been noticed to appear before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court on September 28. He and the supertanker’s other crew members are now in quarantine under the care of the Sri Lanka Navy in Galle. The captain is due to complete his quarantine period on September 24.
The AG’s Department told the Magistrate’s Court on Thursday that the ship’s captain had failed to activate the fire suppression system onboard the vessel when the fire initially began and had also not taken prompt action to inform relevant authorities of the emergency.
The Panamanian flagged MT New Diamond was carrying 270,000 metric tonnes of crude oil for the Indian Oil Company from a port in Kuwait to the Indian Port of Paradip when a fire broke out onboard the vessel on September 3 following a boiler room explosion. At the time, the ship was 38 nautical miles off Sangamankanda Point. One Filipino crew member was killed in the incident while 22 others, comprising 17 Filipinos and five Greeks, were subsequently rescued.
(See related story on Page 10)