A high-court has sentenced the captain and chief officer of the Hong Kong-registered tanker Hebei Spirit, the ship involved in the massive oil spill off Taean last year, to prison sentences, overturning a lower court decision.
This for the crime of being hit while anchored by a Samsung Heavy Industries barge that had separated from its tugboats.
From the Korea Times:
The court acknowledged that the primary responsibility for the collision lay with Samsung, but that the tanker’s crew were also partially responsible as they did not take immediate and proper measures to minimize the oil leak.
“We rule that the chief officer of Hebei Spirit did not conduct his surveillance duty properly in the initial stages of the accident. If he had, the captain could have taken effective measures to avoid the collision,” the court said. “Following the collision, the tanker’s crew injected gas into the oil tank to prevent an explosion, but the measure resulted in more oil leakage. They started moving the oil to another tank three and a half hours after the accident,” it said.
The court said the oil spill inflicted huge mental and financial damage on the residents there and led to an environmental disaster, saying, “The accused, seafarers of both Hebei Spirit and Samsung, should take responsibility for the damages. They did not regret their wrongdoing and even gave false testimony.”
The shipping industry, needless to say, is less than pleased with the decision:
THE international shipping community reacted with fury today after a South Korean court jailed the ‘Hebei Two’, master and chief officer of the Hebei Spirit, the tanker involved in the country’s worst oil spill.
National Union of Seafarers of India general secretary Abdulgani Serang told Lloyd’s List: “We are very furious. We condemn this decision. It’s unfair and unjust.”
Mr Serang warned of a possible backlash against South Korea following the jailing of Captain Jasprit Chawla and chief officer Syam Chetan who had previously been found innocent at a court hearing on June 23.
He said: “There is a strong possibility Indian seafarers will not take ships to South Korea. The seafaring and shipping communities are deeply disturbed. Reactions are bound to follow.”
Adding its voice, the International Transport Workers Federation said the decision was “incomprehensibly vindictive”.
ITF maritime coordinator Stephen Cotton said: “This is not justice. It’s not even something close. What we have seen today is scapegoating, criminalisation and a refusal to consider the wider body of evidence that calls into question the propriety of the court. This decision is incomprehensibly vindictive and will impact on all professional mariners”.
A lot more indignation where that came from. That said, at least one group of people were happy:
About 100 residents of the area affected by the spill clapped outside court after the judges issued their judgment. “We are satisfied with the verdict,” one told Agence France Presse.
Well, it looks like this will be appealed to the Supreme Court, where I’d imagine — with the public calls for blood now balanced by international calls for Korea’s blood — the decision will be overturned.
(HT to reader)
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
It is Impossible to blame a Korean in Korea … just can’t happen .. the land of no accountability
We feel bad. Someone must pay. Logic and laws don’t apply. YOU MUST UNDERSTAND!
I don’t know enough about the facts of the case to say these guys are blameless, though it kinda seems that way. Regardless, I am totally in favor of adding “LoneStarred” to the expat lexicon.
#3 “I don’t know enough about the facts of the case to say these guys are blameless”
The non-Koreans were sitting out of the way when the Koreans’ out-of-control gear caused a collision…. yes, the non-Koreans are blameless.
Maybe you meant the actions after the collision:
“Following the collision, the tanker’s crew injected gas into the oil tank to prevent an explosion, but the measure resulted in more oil leakage.”
Stopping an explosion by adding to the spill? Actually, a good call. If the Koreans don’t like non-Koreans making those decisions…. the Koreans should stop ramming foreign ships with Korean oil-vessels.
That is probably exactly what is going to happen. It seems that Korean judges read newspapers rather than law books to reach their judgements.
Wow. Shockingly hateful, retarded and yes, vindictive; in the way I imagine a really stupid person would be vindictive. Way to go in finding new depths of incivility toward foreigners to plumb, Korea. This is the type of thing that calls for a rehabilitation of Gerry Bevers: go for it man! Throw all the turds you like, I shan’t again criticize your anti-Korean pathologies. These hate-blinded self-absorbed self-righteous egomaniacs deserve it. Or perhaps more accurately, I guess you might deserve each other.
Face facts. Here is Korea.
Had the Hebei Spirit not been in Korean waters the accident would never had happened.
That Samsung is also found at fault is absurd. What is this? Accoutability creep!?
As a little twist to this farce, I like how they were specifically punished for injecting inert gas into the tank in order to prevent a huge fireball and consequent greater spill, not to mention loss of life to the crew. Truly no good deed goes unpunished in the hub of retaliatory jurisprudence.
Of course it goes without saying that the ‘legal system’ here is in dire need of a major overhaul.
Let’s not forget that this is a country where you can go to jail or be heavily fined for defending yourself against an unprovoked attack.
It’s the whole notion of shared responsibility regardless of circumstance that is troubling. It is a relic of Korean conservative thinking I guess. Anyway, it definitely isn’t based in logic.
Were the ones directly responsible for the collision also paraded outside the courthouse in handcuffs?
“Well, it looks like this will be appealed to the Supreme Court, where I’d imagine — with the public calls for blood now balanced by international calls for Korea’s blood — the decision will be overturned.”
Don’t forget that chaebols control the economic and political life of this country. It’s all about making sure that business returns back to normal once things have quieted down.
I checked on Google News and this decision has made the BBC news website along with several Indian sites, so the news is getting out abroad. I found this statement quite interesting:
Korea’s gotta lose some major face over this one, I hope the money Samsung gave the judges was worth it.
http://justiceforhebeispirit.blogspot.com/
This sort of result reminds me of what I sometimes observed with American soldiers tried in Korean courts.
Some of the soldiers, of course, were dead-to-rights guilty. They tended to get off with light punishment if they confessed. At least a guilty man can get a fair trial in Korea.
On the other hand, I’ve seen Korean courts convict Americans on outrageously flimsy evidence. I’ve been waiting a long time for USFK to have some sac and stand by principle. The Army intills officers with the duty to take care of their soldiers, but the same command that keeps agreeing to expand Korean jurisdiction over U.S. military personnel won’t demand meaningful reforms to the Korean system first.
They have no right to demand reforms. This is Korea, not America.
In saying that, I agree that the Korean judicial system is a steaming pile. On the other hand I don’t think it’s possible to “reform” it, since the rot that undermines it is cultural and runs through every institution in the country. Reforms will never kill the brown paper bag, or take the “hermit” out of the kingdom; its a basic sense of right and wrong that’s lacking, and you can never reform that.
“They have no right to demand reforms. This is Korea, not America.”
Actually, the Republic of Korea was a creation of the US State Dept.
Could anybody reading this actually have actually imagined a different outcome?
I actually intended to use the word actually only once in #17. Apols.
“We rule that the chief officer of Hebei Spirit did not conduct his surveillance duty properly in the initial stages of the accident. If he had, the captain could have taken effective measures to avoid the collision,” the court said. “Following the collision, the tanker’s crew injected gas into the oil tank to prevent an explosion, but the measure resulted in more oil leakage. They started moving the oil to another tank three and a half hours after the accident,” it said.
Forcing inert gas into a ruptured oil compartment chamber helps prevent an explosion because the pressure prevents air, which has combustible oxygen, from entering. The Captain made the correction call on that one, no if’s and’s or but’s. However, what the Captain should have also done immediately was to have the oil from the ruptured compartment transferred to other compartments, preferably the ones on the side of the ship opposite the rupture. The ballast differential would have tilted the ship at an angle, thereby minimizing the leakage. Why did it take three and a half hours to start the oil transfer? That is the point of contention upon which the court made its verdict. It is a perfectly legitimate contention.
NetizenKim, do you think sending someone to jail for not reacting in the best possible way to a tanker crashing into his ship is perfectly legitimate? You don’t know what went down at that exact moment. I’m sure the captain wasn’t just standing around watching oil leak into the sea and saying, “Oh, this is great! Let’s wait a few hours so we can lose as much of our cargo as possible!”
To be fair to Korea, this type of incident isn’t exactly unique. Spain drew a lot of flack for imprisoning the Greek Captain, Apostolos Mangouras, of the Prestige, another single hulled oil tanker that sank off the coast of Spain. It was lost in a storm and the Spanish prosecutors blamed the Captain for bringing it close to the coast when it was damaged while the Captain maintained that if he was allowed to take harbor in the bay of Biscay he could have saved the ship. The French also reamed their own state oil company a new one, and the Italian shipowners and not coincidentally the captain for the loss of the Erika off Brittany some years back.
NetizenKim wrote:
According to THIS SITE, (1) oil could not be transferred to other tanks because “all tanks were 98% full.” (2) The oil could not be transferred to empty ballast tanks because the “piping systems were totally independent of each other.” (3) The ship could not have been listed to 18 degrees to stop the oil flow because the vessel was already listed to “about 5 degrees, any more on a full VLCC in Beaufort Force 6-7 winds with 4 metre waves” would have compromised the stability of the ship. “If the ship had sunk, spillage could have increased to 200,000 plus tonnes of crude in lieu of around 10,500.”
Why did it take three and a half hours to start the oil transfer?
Here is the link to the site where the above information came from:
http://justiceforhebeispirit.blogspot.com/
What’s in it for Samsung to see the Hebei Two go down? Do they pay less fine or is it a question of sharing the cost of compensation claims?
OK, I’ve thought some more about this matter. I agree that this is a serious miscarriage of justice. I understand that the case may be escalated to the Supreme Court where I hope that the captain and chief engineer will be fully exonerated and let go.
But really, some of you need stop playing the tiresome foreigner discrimination card. Not only is it annoying and stupid, it also obscures the real issue. The real issue is that this is another case of Samsung being too powerful, corrupt, and able to bend the law in its favor. The victim could just as well been Korean.
Notice: Off-topic
#15 Hoju_Saram
If Korea is looking to re-negotiate the SOFA to increase Korean jurisdiction over U.S. military personnel, then USFK most certainly has a right to demand reforms before agreeing to those concessions.
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