September 3, 2014 Letter from the Directorate General of Land and Maritime Transport to Beirut’s Port Authority
September 3, 2014
5961/6
To : ‘Compagnie d’Exploitation et de Gestion du Port de Beyrouth’ (CEGPB)
Re: Request to secure premises to store the cargo of the RHOSUS loaded with hazardous merchandise (ammonium nitrate)
Reference: The RHOSUS file
- The ship RHOSUS arrived to Beirut Port on November 21, 2013, loaded with Ammonium Nitrate, which is classified as a hazardous substance, to ship merchandise from the port. Due to a dispute between BUNKERNET LTD and the shipowners, Beirut Enforcement Department issued judicial order no. 1031/2013, dated December 20, 2013, as per which the ship was impounded and forbidden from leaving the Lebanese territorial waters, unless it paid a bail covering the outstanding debt to the party requesting its impoundment.
- Since the urgent matters judge issued a decision recently to allow the Lebanese state represented by the Directorate General of Land and Maritime Transport to refloat the RHOSUS, after transferring the dangerous material onboard to an adequate storage place under its supervision, until the material and the ship are auctioned,
We kindly request that you take note of the above and help provide places to store the indicated hazardous merchandise in one of the Beirut Port warehouses to allow for the resumption of the necessary measures to request auctioning the merchandise and ship.
Director General of Land and Maritime Transport,
Engineer Abdel Hafiz el-Kaissi
Translated by Human Rights Watch