Responding to the Spanish Supreme Court’s decision to sentence Captain Apostolos Mangouras to two years imprisonment over the 2002 Prestige oil spill, ITF seafarers’ section chair Dave Heindel commented: “This decision represents the dying gasps of a 14-year-old attempt to deflect blame onto the shoulders of an octogenarian man, who has been cleared in the court of world opinion and by his peers.
“Thankfully it is likely to be as unenforceable as it is illogical. This innocent man cannot again be made to sit needlessly in jail.”
Mangouras was convicted of recklessness resulting in catastrophic environmental damage, according to a statement by the court, overturning a previous sentence which cleared him of criminal responsibility.
The Prestige sinking saw roughly 63,000 tonnes of bunker fuel wash up along the Galicia coast.
Heindel concluded: “The Mangouras case was one of the worse examples of the kneejerk criminalisation of seafarers. The ITF, like many other organisations and individuals, was able to support him during that ordeal. This latest piece of victimisation reminds us that we must all remain vigilant to protect seafarers from these injustices.”
Commenting on this site about the court ruling, Peter Swift, the former managing director of Intertanko, wrote: “This ruling is an utter travesty of justice and Captain Mangouras, whose life has already been made hell, is again the innocent victim.
Had the Spanish authorities not denied the ship a place of refuge the spill would either have been avoided completely or contained with the prospect of only minimal sacrificial damage. Let’s hope that all those who stood together in protest over the previous treatment of this man stand up to be counted again.”
