Seaman Guard Ohio crew appeal

PMSC contractors and crew appeal sentences.

U.S. ship crew challenge conviction

MOHAMED IMRANULLAH S.

Six British nationals, 14 Estonians, three Ukrainians and 12 Indians who were onboard U.S. anti-piracy vessel MV Seaman Guard Ohio have moved the Madras High Court Bench here challenging the conviction and five-year sentence imposed on them by a Thoothukudi Court on January 11 for entering Indian territorial waters illegally with a huge cache of arms and ammunition on October 12, 2013.

The appellants before the High Court Bench included the ship’s captain, M. Dudnik Valentyn (66), an Ukranian national, and its Tactical Deployment Officer F. Paul David Dennish Towers (52), a Briton. Denying the charge of having entered Indian waters illegally, they claimed that their vessel had got stranded on high seas since it ran out of diesel, when the Indian Coast Guard intercepted it.

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Source: thehindu.com