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May 16, 2014 Letter from the Director General of General Security

May 16, 2014

Right to left

Top Secret

Date: May 16, 2014

Re: Impounding the commercial ship “Rhosus” in Beirut Port

  1. On November 21, 2013, the “Rhosus”, a Moldovan-flagged commercial ship affiliated to theNational Trading and Shipping Agency, entered Beirut Port with onboard 9 sailors who were Ukrainian nationals, in addition to a Russian captain.
  2. The ship was provisionally impounded pursuant to a judicial order issued by the Enforcement Department in Beirut, and which banned the ship from leaving the port until further notice for financial reasons because of outstanding debts due to “BUNKERNET LTD” (represented by lawyers Samir and Jean Baroudi). The impoundment decision was taken after the cargo was unloaded from the ship and several tonnes of extremely hazardous substance (Ammonium Nitrate High Density IMO 5.1) in transit, remained onboard. Ammonium Nitrate was shipped from Batumi Port, Georgia to Beira Port, Mozambique for “Banco International De Mocambique”.
  3. The decision to impound the ship caused a crisis for the crew, summarized as per the below:
  • The crew have not received their wages since before the ship entered Lebanon.
  • The ship owner, called Igor, refused to appoint a new crew, or evacuate the crew that was onboard of the ship.
  • The Russian captain of the ship was denied the authorization to leave the ship since it entered the port.
  • The ship owner, Igor, refused the Ukrainian Consul’s request to evacuate the Ukrainian sailors since the instructions stipulate that five sailors at least should stay onboard of the ship, and ban them from leaving unless replacements [a new crew] were appointed.
  • The ship was seldom supplied with food; the sailors were supplied twice a month with food rations worth USD 30, which led them to sell some hardware to get food supplies.
  1. It should be noted that Mustafa Baghdadi, the maritime agent, claimed as well that he had financial dues owed to him by the ship owner, exceeding USD 1 million (Port Expenses – birthing, equipment, etc…). The agent tuned to the Director General of Land and Maritime Transport Eng. Abdel Hafiz al-Kaissi to submit a recourse to the State Council in this regard, noting that the ship is still docked in Beirut Port to date.

 

 

 

Translated by Human Rights Watch