France court sentences Russia-linked tanker captain to one year in jail

BREST, (France): A French court Monday issued an arrest warrant and a one-year jail sentence against the Chinese captain of a suspected Russian “shadow fleet” tanker over failing to comply with orders to stop his ship.

Chen Zhangjie, 39, was sentenced in absentia after the French navy boarded the Boracay tanker in September before releasing the vessel and its crew days later, in what Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned as “piracy”.

The court in the western city of Brest also ordered Zhangjie to pay a 150,000-euro ($172,000) fine.

The vessel, claiming to be flagged in Benin, was thought to be part of a fleet transporting Russian oil in violation of Western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Two employees of a Russian private security company were on board the Boracay when the French navy stopped it, an informed French source and the captain’s lawyer have told AFP.

They were in charge of representing Russian interests and gathering intelligence, they said.

The Boracay has been linked to mysterious drone flights over Denmark last year, part of a spate of drone sightings and airspace violations in European countries blamed on Russia.

No formal link has however been established and Moscow denies responsibility.

The European Union lists 598 vessels, suspected of being part of the “shadow fleet”, as banned from European ports and maritime services.