Sri Lanka arrests captain over ship fire pollution
15 June, 2021
The Russian skipper of a container ship that caught fire and burned for almost two weeks before sinking off Sri Lanka's coast has been arrested and is expected to be charged with marine pollution, police said on Monday (Jun 14).
The island nation is seeking US$40 million in damages from the operators of the ship, which released tonnes of plastic recycleables that swamped local beaches in what officials called the "worst marine disaster" in the country's history.
Vitaly Tyutkalo, the captain of the Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl, was arrested at his hotel in the commercial capital Colombo on Monday and faced the High Court before released on bail.
"No formal charges were laid, but he was produced before court on suspicion that he has committed an offence beneath the Marine Pollution Prevention Act," a police official told AFP.
Tyutkalo, whose passport had previously been seized, will go back to the court, which has jurisdiction over maritime issues, on Jul 1, he added.
The passports of the chief engineer, Oleg Sadilenko, who's also a Russian national, and chief officer Peter Anish, an Indian, were also seized. All three were questioned by police after a criminal probe was launched.
Police told a Colombo magistrate last week that the neighborhood agent of X-Press Pearl had deleted emails essential to the investigation.
The ship reported an onboard acid leak to its Sri Lanka representative Sea Consortium Lanka, which didn't alert local authorities, the state prosecutor had said.
Sri Lankan environmentalists earlier sued the federal government and the ship's operator X-Press Feeders for allegedly failing to prevent the disaster.
The vessel has been submerged in seas off Colombo since Jun 2.
Officials have said that about 1,200 tonnes of plastic pellets and other debris scooped from the beaches are being placed in 45 shipping containers.
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