From : AFP news
SEOUL (AFP) — Two officers from a Hong Kong supertanker have been banned from leaving South Korea despite being cleared of blame for the country's worst oil spill, world shipping organisations complained Wednesday.
The eight groups in a statement jointly protested against "the continuing unjust and unreasonable detention" of the captain and chief officer of the Hebei Spirit, and appealed to the government to let them leave immediately.
A court on June 23 jailed two South Korean tugboat captains for causing the spill last December but acquitted the tanker officers and the ship's owner, Hong Kong-registered Hebei Ocean Shipping.
But because prosecutors plan to appeal that ruling, a court has banned captain Jasprit Chawla and chief officer Syam Chetan -- both Indian nationals -- from leaving the country.
The shipping groups in a statement expressed "surprise, disappointment and great concern" that the officers may be refused permission to leave the country for possibly as long a year pending further hearings.
"Such measures appear to be unjustified, unreasonable and in contravention of the men's rights."
The accident happened when a barge carrying a crane snapped its cables to two tugs in rough seas and rammed the anchored 147,000-ton Hebei Spirit, holing it in three places and spilling 10,900 tons of crude.
Scores of marine farms and miles of beaches, notably in Taean county about 110 kilometres (69 miles) southwest of Seoul, were smothered in oil.
The groups include BIMCO, the world's biggest private shipping organisation.
They said the officers, who are staying in a Seoul apartment, have been refused permission to leave the country since the accident occurred.
The shipping groups said "such continued unjust detention may well affect the physical and mental health of the two men." It pledged they would return to the country to assist any further investigations.
"They have done nothing wrong but their whole career has been interrupted," said Ferdi Stolzenberg, spokesman for the ship managers. "They want to go home to their families. Everyone has given undertakings that they will return."
Chawla, 39, is married with two children while Chetan, 33, is married with a one-year-old son.
"I missed my son's first birthday, which I'm not very happy about," Chetan told the industry newspaper Lloyd's List recently.
Friends and family in India cannot understand how "we've been found innocent but have not come back," he said.
A prosecutor involved in the case told AFP on condition of anonymity that "it's impossible to lift the exit ban because the appeals process is underway."
From : AFP news
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