Prestige' trio not guilty
Nov 15 2013
A Spanish court has found the crew of the tanker ' Prestige ' and the Spanish Merchant Navy not guilty for criminal responsibility of the sinking of the oil tanker on 13th November, 2002.
'Prestige' sank off Spain's northwestern coast and polluted thousands of miles of coastline and beaches in Spain, France and Portugal - prompting Spain to close its fishing grounds for about six months. The single-hull tanker was transporting about 77,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil.
Initially, the ship's Master Apostolos Mangouras asked for a place of refuge for the tanker, which had a crack in its hull. However, the Spanish authorities denied his request and instructed him to take his ship further out to sea. The French and Portuguese governments also denied any assistance.
On 19th November following a storm, the hull broke in half the cargo entered the sea off Spain's coast. Mangouras was taken into custody for 'not co-operating' with salvage crews and causing environmental damage.
After an 11-year judicial investigation, the Galician region's high court said that the disaster was partly due to the 26-year-old tanker's poor state of repair. Spain was also unsuccessful in suing ABS for the condition of the ship.
Three judges of the Galician Spanish High Court concluded it was impossible to establish criminal responsibility and Capt Mangouras, Chief Engineer Nikolaos Argyropoulos and the former head of Spain's Merchant Navy, Jose Luis Lopez, were found not guilty of crimes against the environment.
Lopez was the only government official charged in the case. Mangouras was found guilty of a lesser charge of disobedience and given a nine-month suspended sentence.
"The Spanish authorities had the correct advice to evaluate the hypothesis on whether, or not the tanker should be moved away from the coast," said Chief Justice Juan Luis Pia, as he relayed the verdict and sentence in a televised court hearing.
The Judges said the leak was caused by deficient maintenance, which the crew did not know about, the newswires reported.
========= fm tanker operator ==============
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