THIRTY-FIVE men must stay in India to face re-trial, having already been found not guilty after their armed patrol ship was blown into national waters in a typhoon last year.
The men were jailed for a year in Chennai, after their Liberian-flagged 197-ton Seamen Guard Ohio, fitted out as an armed anti-piracy support vessel, was arrested.
The ship, like a Hong Kong Marine Police patrol ship, can legally possess weapons and armed guards on the high seas, to rotate staff and weapons on the ships they protect, but not in territorial waters of countries where such activities are forbidden.
Indian police found 31 rifles and 5,000 rounds of ammunition aboard the ship it detained at the Tuticorin, in the state of Tamil Nadu.
The Mission to Seafarers, the crew and families are making a worldwide appeal to put pressure on British and Indian authorities to do more, after a branch of the provincial Tamil Nadu police managed to relay the arms charges.
The seafarers' mission fears that the recently freed crew now face possible jail time after a last minute appeal by Q Branch was lodged to overturn an Indian High Court ruling to drop all charges.
Q branch of the Tamil Nadu provincial police deals paramilitary threats. It was highly active in the Sri Lankan Civil War that pitted northern Tamils against the southern Ceylonese government. But the war ended in 2009.
While the Madras High Court in Chennai, dismissed the arms charges in July, it found the captain and the fuel vendor guilty of illegally buying and selling subsidized fuel.
"This has been the most terrible ordeal for all the crew and their families, and I am baffled that this has happened now," said Mission to Seafarers justice and welfare director Ken Peters.
"It has been a complex case, but the High Court Judge dismissed all charges three months ago, so the men rightly presumed that they were free to go." he said.
Rev Canon Peters said he has been working with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to try and assist with the repatriation.
"However, it now transpires that Q Branch has lodged a counter-appeal to have the charges re-instated in the Indian Supreme Court," he said.
"As the men have now been held for a year, I would like to make a further appeal to the good sense and sound judgment of the Indian Government to please look again at this case, and assist in this matter, to allow the men to return home as soon as possible.?
The shipboard guard employer, Davenport, a Washington area security contractor, said it focuses on defense and homeland security products, technologies and services.
Being contractors themselves, the men do not get paid except for contracted services for which they could not perform while in jail.
Said ex-British serviceman Paul Towers: "If we have to go to another trial, we will have to fight again to clear our names; we have already been found innocent of all charges in July, and have been held in India for a year; we haven't been paid for 11 months and this has had a heavy financial effect on all of our families. I pray to God this will end soon."
WORLD SHIPPING
19 October 2014 - 21:19
First found not guilty, now armed guards face re-trial for guns in Indian waters
THIRTY-FIVE men must stay in India to face re-trial, having already been found not guilty after their armed patrol ship was blown into national waters in a typhoon last year.
WORLD SHIPPING
19 October 2014 - 21:19
First found not guilty, now armed guards face re-trial for guns in Indian waters
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