Oil tanker sanctioned by US, later found off Iran was hijacked, says captain
A missing crude oil tanker subject to US government sanctions over alleged involvement in Iran’s oil exportation was hijacked, according to the ship’s captain.
A missing crude oil tanker subject to US government sanctions over alleged involvement in Iran’s oil exportation was hijacked, according to the ship’s captain.
The MT Gulf Sky, which has been based in the United Arab Emirates for months, stopped transmitting its location on July 5. The Dominica-flagged ship was then spotted on satellite imagery just a few miles off Iran’s coast near Hormuz Island on Tuesday by TankerTrackers, a website that monitors maritime oil trade, the Associated Press first reported.
The ship’s captain told the UK-based NGO Human Rights at Sea (HRS) that two of the ship’s crew members are in currently Tehran, according to AP. Twenty-six other members of the Indian crew returned to India, said HRS CEO David Hammond.
The vessel had previously been based at Khorfakkan on the UAE’s east coast after it was seized by local authorities due to a civil action suit by its Greece-based seller because a US bank froze the funds used to transfer the ship two Iranian buyers.
