Date:26/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/26/stories/2008122654860500.htm

Kerala - Kochi

Merchant Navy officers’ imprisonment decried

Staff Reporter

Kochi: The city-based Merchant Navy Officers’ Welfare Association (MNOWA), India, is drawing up plans to protest against the imprisonment of two Indian Merchant Navy officers by South Korea on charges of causing oil spill.

According to MNOWA joint-secretary K.A. Shihabudheen, Captain Jasprit Chawla and Chief Officer Shyam Chetan of crude carrier ‘Hebei Spirit’ were detained by South Korea in December last year after a tug-towed crane barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industries rammed the carrier when it was safely at anchor near the Port of Daesan on the Yellow Sea coast of Taean County.

The accident caused spillage of 10,800 tonnes of crude oil. After they were acquitted by a lower court in June, the South Korean prosecution, allegedly in collusion with Samsung, filed an appeal at a higher court which resulted in their continued detention.

Overturning the lower court judgment, the appeal court this month convicted both officers. It sentenced Captain Chawla to imprisonment for 18 months. Mr. Chetan was sentenced for eight months.

On conviction, the officers were allegedly denied all human rights, and were handcuffed and paraded in public.

Condemning the order, the international maritime community and the International Transport Workers Federation (ITWF) demanded their release. The MNOWA held demonstrations before Samsung’s factories at a few places in Tamil Nadu. It also submitted a mass petition to Union Minister for Shipping T.R. Baalu demanding intervention. “The executive meeting of the association is slated for next week and most probably, among other measures, we would decide to boycott Samsung products in the wake of denial of justice,” said M.S. Biju, another joint-secretary of MNOWA.