Georgia arrests ex-skipper for unauthorized visit to Abkhazia

A former skipper who is a national of Azerbaijan  was  put  in  two-month  pretrial  detention  in  Georgia on Wednesday  for the "violation of the rules on visiting the sea region of Abkhazia" after the tanker he commanded brought 2,600 tonnes of gasoline to Abkhazia on June 14 without permission from the Georgian authorities, Interfax reports.

Ilgar Imanverdiyev, former captain of the Panamanian-flagged tanker Buket, was  arrested  at  the  Georgian  port  of  Batumi  when  he  was undergoing passport control aboard a Sierra   Leone-flagged ship on August 24. The  city  court  of  Poti  ordered  him to be jailed for two months pending trial.

The  Georgian  border  police  said  the  reason for Imanverdiyev's arrest was  "group  violation of the rules on visiting the sea region of Abkhazia."

Georgian  coast  guards  detained  the  Buket last week. The ship's current captain and crew are also under arrest.

Earlier this week, the Poti city court ordered a two-month pretrial detention  for the captain of the ship Afro Star, which had also visited Abkhazia without permission from the Georgian authorities.

(Source: Port News)