ROSTOV-ON-DON, April 4. /TASS/. The captain of a vessel arrested in Turkey with a Russian crew on board, Bakhman Bagirov, has signed documents, under which the ship is to be sold upon the return of all its crew home, while money must be used first and foremost to pay off debts to the Russian seamen.
The vessel that sailed to Turkey from Russia’s southern city of Rostov-on-Don for maintenance was arrested in June 2018. There were nine Russians on board, who hadn’t received their salaries since June. According to Bagirov, the ship’s owner owes the crew more than $120,000. In order to get their salaries, the seamen hired a lawyer and issued him a power of attorney. According to Bagirov, the documents went to court, but legal proceedings are not the matter at issue.
"The court is not needed for this, we filed [the documents] for getting what is owed to us. If an officer of the court receives no objections within a week, - though they cannot as I signed for the ship-owner that there are no objections - then the captain of the port arrests the ship. They sell the ship and the money first of all goes to pay off our wage arrears," Bagirov said.
The captain himself will return home as early as overnight to April 5. According to him, six people will remain on board, but, as the lawyer says, they must be brought off the ship within ten days so that the port captain could start the sales procedure.
Earlier reports said a hearing on the case to possibly lift the arrest of the ship was postponed until June 11. The Streamline vessel under the flag of the Comoro Islands was sold to Turkey’s Akca Shipping, according to its previous owner, Seemann Investitionen Ltd.
It sailed to Turkey for maintenance, and anchored at the port of Istanbul on June 11. On June 17, an Istanbul court ordered the ship’s arrest.
