An expected audience. Vladimir Mottine, 59, captain of the Solong containers carrier, appeared this Friday, May 30, before the Criminal Court of Old Bailey in London, where he was prosecuted for “homicide for serious negligence.”
This hearing was expected, the celebration of the trial was the condition that the defendant argued. This Friday, the Russian captain declared himself “not guilty.”
Assisted by a Russian interpreter, he rejected his identity before indicating that he declared himself innocent. A new hearing was scheduled for September 10, before an established trial for January 12, 2026.
On March 10, the container bearer Solong, surpassing the Portuguese pavilion, collided with the Immaculate Petroleum of Stena who was anchored about twenty km from the east coast of England.
One of the members of the Solong crew, the Mark Angelia pernia of Philippin, had died in the collision that had also feared ecological damage, after a leak from a part of the kerosene transported by the Immaculate Stena. The collision had caused huge fires aboard the two ships, which were dominated after several days of fighting fire.
Criminal thesis a time studied
On the immaculate side of Stena, rented by the US army, around 220,000 barrels of aviation fuel and one of the tanks (“broken” in the collision) were transported. Area surveillance The accident had allowed the possible contamination of one or another of the ships.
If an oil spill has been avoided, the collision has caused the dispersion of many plastic granules of the sun load, in the water and in the coasts of this region that house several natural reserves.
Vladimir Mottine, from St. Petersburg, has been arrested since the events. In April, he had appeared by videoconference before the judge, who had decided to repel the hearing about his guilt in the absence of Russian interpreter.
The British authorities opened an investigation, in cooperation with American and Portuguese teams, to determine the causes of this collision and the reason why the Sun did not deviate from his career to avoid the oil tanker.
The British government had quickly ruled out the hypothesis of a criminal act. A preliminary report from the Maritime Accident Research Office revealed that visibility at the time of the collision was “variable”.
In the shock, a deposit of the Immaculate Stena has been damaged, letting the kerosene escape in the sea and in the bow of the Solong, according to this report. This aviation fuel was lit and the fire won the containers transported by the Solong.
The plastic pellets, 16 tons of which have been removed from the beaches of Lincolnshire (northeast of England), can represent a risk of fauna if they are ingested.
Ernst Russ, the German company owner of the container bearer, and Crowley, the American company that operates the oil company, filed complaints with each other.
Source: BFM TV
