The Hindu Business Line : Hebei Spirit oil spill case: Korean court sentences two Indians

Mumbai, Dec. 10 As a captain of several merchant ships transporting an assortment of cargoes to far-flung destinations across the globe, he had weathered many a storm. But, the storm that Capt. Jasprit Chawla was caught in last year, after the anchored vessel he was captaining was involved in an accidental oil spill off the South Korean coast, is yet to blow over. In fact, it only intensified on Wednesday.

After being detained in South Korea for the last one year, an appeals court in South Korea on Wednesday handed down an 18-month imprisonment sentence on Capt. Chawla in connection with the oil spillage accident.

Although a copy of the judgment was not immediately available, some foreign news agencies said the Daejeon District court, reversing an earlier lower court ruling, also convicted another Indian officer to eight month prison, on charges of negligence and violating anti-pollution laws.

The detention of Capt. Chawla, along with his Chief Officer Mr Syam Chetan, has attracted the attention of the international maritime industry, with the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) taking up the issue and demanding their release. This was after a lower court exonerated the two officers in June this year, but they were, however, continued to be kept under detention after the South Korean prosecution filed an appeal.

Even, the Union Minister for Shipping, Mr T.R. Baalu, had appealed to the Government of Republic of Korea in October to allow the two offers to leave Korea, as they had been declared innocent by the Daejon District Court.

Mr Abdulgani Serang, General Secretary, National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI), described the judgment as unfair. NUSI has called for a meeting with various stakeholders in the shipping industry, including the Indian National Shipowners Association, on Thursday to discuss the issue.

The two Indian officers were part of the crew of a very large crude carrier, Hebei Spirit, carrying 2.6 lakh tonnes of crude oil. According to the ITF, on December 7, 2007, a tug-towed crane barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industries collided with the anchored VLCC near the Port of Daesan on the Yellow Sea Coast of Taean County.

The barge was said to be floating free after the cable linking it to the tug had sapped in the rough seas. Although there were no casualties, the collision punctured three of the five tanks aboard Hebei Spirit, resulting in the spillage of 10,800 tonnes.

Despite that, reports have it that within two days of the spill, the oil slick had become 33 km long, 10 metres wide and 10 cm thick in certain areas.

The incident was dubbed as the worst of such spillages faced by South Korea, with the spill being about one-third the size of the Exxon Valdez release. “The Hebei Spirit oil spill was a traumatic event in Korea and there can be no intent to evade responsibility for it. The tanker was safely at anchor when a runaway barge holed it,” an ITF statement says.

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