Russia’s Sailors Released in Benin
The Cotonou Court, Benin, tried yesterday the case of Russia’s four sailors, who were detained October 27 on suspected theft of the ship’s chest. The Court dismissed all charges and released the sailors.
Russia’s four sailors - Vasily Zavadsky, who was the captain of Skanner, his mate Vladimir Pchyolin, senior mechanic Alexey Yakubovsky and sailor Vasily Poziba – worked at the Skanner under the contract with Greek Azure Service. Their conflict with the ship owner sparkled, as the latter lacked the will to pay the whole amount due to the sailors for five months of work and blamed the theft of $50,000 ship’s chest on them.
Very soon, the Russians found themselves under arrest in a local hotel in Cotonou, where they had to spend a few days. Once the investigation was over, the files were forwarded to the court, which gave a fair trial to the case yesterday.
Of interest is that exactly Azure Service owned African Pride that was arrested together with the crew, including 12 Russians, in October 2003 in Nigeria. Those sailors returned home only in two years after the arrest and endured 36 sittings of the court.
Fortunately, all went well with the Russians in Benin. The Cotonou Court dismissed all charges and ruled to release them from detention. Azure Service that failed in the suit refused to pay for the enforced accommodation of sailors in the hotel and, in clear violation of the contract provisions, bought no aviation tickets for them. So the Russians had to cover the charges themselves.
Today the sailors head for Moscow via Paris by Air France. Their next concern is making the Creek firm pay salaries in whole, and the soil of Russia obviously suits better to tackle this task.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 03, 2006
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