On January 28, the fate of the captain of the oil tanker Marinera was decided after many tense legal disputes. Lawyer Aamer Anwar, representing the captain's family, confirmed that his client had been taken out of British waters.
Mr. Avtandil Kalandadze, a Georgian citizen and captain of the arrested ship, and an under-age employee were transferred to the US Coast Guard ship Munro. The incident took place fleetingly, making intervention efforts from local courts ineffective.
The cause of the incident stems from the US campaign to tighten sanctions on Venezuela's oil export industry. On January 7, US special forces carried out a siege of Marinera ship in the Atlantic Ocean near Iceland.
The US accuses this Russian-flagged ship of belonging to the "dark fleet", specializing in transporting smuggled oil to evade sanctions. After more than 2 weeks of being chased and controlled, the ship has been brought back to anchor in the waters off Scotland to handle legal procedures.
The climax of the incident occurred earlier this week when the captain's family tried to prevent the extradition. The Scottish court on January 26 issued an emergency temporary order banning the movement of Mr. Kalandadze pending a review of the legality of the arrest warrant.
However, this ban expired overnight. The court was forced to overturn the ruling early in the morning of January 27 due to receiving a notice that the captain had been taken out of British waters a few hours earlier. Lawyer Anwar strongly criticized this action and called it a "kidnapping" carried out by the US government right on ally territory.
The British government immediately spoke out in defense of the decision to cooperate with the US. A spokesman in London affirmed that suppressing Russian oil-smuggling fleets is a top priority in current security policy. Britain confirmed that it has allowed the crew to leave the ship at the request of the US and pledged that all procedures are in accordance with international law.
While the captain and subordinates were taken away, the remaining 26 members of the Marinera crew were transferred to a military center in Inverness. This group includes citizens from many countries such as Russia, Ukraine and India.
There is a clear division within the crew regarding future decisions. Five of them volunteered to come to the US to serve the investigation, while the rest requested vehicle support to return to their homeland.
This incident is causing certain diplomatic tensions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week publicly asked the US to release the entire crew. However, the decisive move to escort the captain shows that the US is accelerating the criminalization of sanctions despite reactions from Russia.
