Indians seize MV Seaman Guard Ohio

[Madhu]

MT Desh Shanti, belonging to the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), was detained by Iran at Bandar Abbas Port on August 12 for alleged pollution. It was released on September 6.

The vessel, which can carry 1,40,000 tonnes of crude, was detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps in the Persian Gulf while carrying oil from Basrah in Iraq to Visakhapatnam.

It was released after SCI, India's largest shipping company, submitted a letter of undertaking to the Iranian Ports and Maritime Organisation.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/ir...ct-ties-418780

How often are ships being detained these days? Is this increasing?

[Madhu]

No US nationals? The report doesn't mention any of the things I posted. It didn't present the statements of the shipping company.

It says that the ship entered the waters illegally. What defines the waters? The NDTV report is different from the 12 miles mentioned above. Was the ship asked to follow the Coast Guard into Indian waters or are the Indians policing waters further out? Again, help from someone that knows about this stuff!

Why didn't the reporters ask for a statement from the company in the report? It presented only one side. Or did I miss it?

http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/new...tionals/294740

[Ray]

It is rather intriguing that the Sierra Leone registered ship should take contraband diesel, when it could have taken it legally from a Port.

There appears to be more than what meets the eye.

[davidbfpo]

Tomorrow, the 33-year-old of Connel, near Oban, will find out if he will at last be freed on bail from Puzhal jail in the Indian city of Chennai.

But an account of the drama, written by one of Billy’s crewmates, reveals the squalid and degrading conditions in which the seamen are being held. It also reveals how Billy and his colleagues were tricked by Indian police, who told them they were being taken to hospital before locking them up in jail.

(Billy's father says) We’ve been failed by his employers, AvanFort. We’ve been let down by the Foreign Office and we have no faith in the Indian legal system.

Link:http://www.sundaypost.com/news-views...unter-1.172483

Found via an e-petition calling upon UK government to help:https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitio...cdA_ovjhrGDbim

[davidbfpo]

A BBC report:

A former British serviceman who has been held in prison in India since October has been granted bail. All six Britons have been in prison in India since 24 October. It is not yet clear if the other five men have been granted bail.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...-west-26748266

[Ray]

Link:http://www.sundaypost.com/news-views...unter-1.172483

Found via an e-petition calling upon UK government to help:https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitio...cdA_ovjhrGDbim

Is it surprising that westerners pretend life is so unjust in third world countries and its jails?

There is a programme on one of the Western TV channels that show the horror of non western jails.

Am I to understand the western jails are resorts for the jailed?

[davidbfpo]

Ray you asked:

Am I to understand the western jails are resorts for the jailed?

Prison regimes in the West greatly vary, I am sure there are websites that rate prisons.

In the UK there are irregular press stories that certain prisons, referred to as "open" are relaxed to say the least; in the USA some federal prisons are "Club Fed" IIRC and can host VIPs, such as Spiro Agnew, once a Vice President.

I do recall a once popular saying, international I expect. "If you cannot do the time, don't do the crime". Some convicted criminals I encountered found non-open prisons here were OK, few seemed to be deterred by their time there.

[davidbfpo]

An update as Indian justice takes time to move:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-34095843

During the BBC's investigation more people came forward to comment on AdvanFort."I'd say the company are more crooked than the pirates we are trying to stop getting on the ships...The lads out there in India, they're totally innocent, they haven't done anything wrong and the company is just letting them drift" said Dave Taylor, a former employee.