Guilty ruling for captain, crew, of sunken Togo-flag freighter

The captain and five-member crew of a Togo-flagged freighter that sank off Cephallonia island on Thursday, causing a 2,000 square meter oil slick, were on Sunday found guilty of deliberately causing a shipwreck and causing marine pollution by a local court of misdemeanors on Sunday, and were sentenced to 5 and 4 years imprisonment respectively without suspension.

An oil slick covering approximately 2,000 square meters was caused off the Myrtos coast of Cephallonia island from the sinking of the Togo-flagged freighter “Christine” on Thursday morning.

The wreck of the “Christine” was located by an amateur fisherman on Thursday 1.5 nautical miles off the bay of Myrtos after he spotted a life-raft adrift near the spot.

The freighter’s six-member Ukrainian crew swam to safety, emerging at Fiskardo beach, and went to the local port authority on Thursday afternoon, where they told authorities that the freighter, which was sailing from Albania to Bulgaria carrying three vehicles, developed engine failure and a rift, and sank after taking on water.

The six men were arrested, while a preliminary investigation into the circumstances of the incident was ordered.

The six are temporarily detained at a local police lock-up facility.