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Court followed prosecutors in pollution case
The 66-year-old Filipino captain of the 'Seaforce' has finally been fined 50,000 Euros for the discharge of around one million liters of scrubber wash water off Fos-Sur-Mer by the court in Marseille. He had claimed that the discharge in March 2023 was carried out without his knowledge, but the court stated that the captain was responsible for ensuring compliance. Initially, the charges against the captain had maximum possible penalty of 4000 Euros, but at a hearing in November 2023, the prosecutor's office reclassified the offense as pollution of the territorial waters with a maximum penalty of 100,000 Euros. The prosecutor's office also dismissed the claim of the captain being unaware of the discharge, stating that it was the captain's responsibility to ensure compliance on board.
€50,000 fine requested for failure to use scrubbers
A €50,000 fine was requested by the prosecutors in Marseille against the Filipino captain of the 'Seaforce' for failure to use scrubbers, when he appeared in court in Marseille on Sep 2, 2024. After his referral in Nov 2023, the trial of the captain of the bulk carrier took plac before the Marseille Criminal Court in the absence of the defendant. Tried for "pollution of the territorial sea", a reclassification that had justified the referral, the captain of thr brddrl of the Greek shipowner Thenamaris is accused of having discharged more than a million liters of water into the harbor of Fos, less than three miles from the coast.
Trial of captain for sea pollution dismissed
After the pollution of the 'Seaforce' in the port of Fos, the trial of the captain for having released more than one million liters of smoke washing water via his open loop scrubber which remained in operation less than three miles from the coast, was dismissed. The Filipino captain of the bulk carrier will be judged in several months. The court postponed its long-awaited decision until Sep 2, 2024. The 6th chamber of the criminal court of Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) in fact postponed the first trial of this type of offense on Nov 6, 2023, to this date. During the hearing, the Marseille prosecutor's office reclassified the offense as "pollution of the territorial sea", thus increasing the maximum fine from 4,000 to 100,000 Euros. He ruled out the unintentional aspect of the offense, considering that a “captain is responsible for everything on board”. Deputy prosecutor Michel Sastre also requested a fine of 80,000 Euros before the captain's defense obtained the dismissal in view of these new proceedings. The “SeaForce” was carrying a cargo of coal to Fos-sur-Mer en route Australia and Singapore. Following an inspection by the PACA-Corsica ship safety center, the captain was accused of having discharged the washwater in the three nautical mile zone, which has been completely prohibited on the French coasts since Jan 1, 2022.
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