The starkest example of innocent seafarers being jailed over alleged drugs offences involves the captain and chief officer of a Marshall Islands-owned bulker.
Croatian captain Marko Bekavac and Finnish colleague Ali Albokhari were sentenced to 30 years in Turkey last year after cocaine was found on the 34,400-dwt handysize Phoenician-M (built 2010), owned by Phoenician Shipping.
InterManager secretary general Kuba Szymanski told TradeWinds there was “no evidence whatsoever” for the convictions, a key reason his organisation wants managers to buy legal liability insurance to help their crew members in such cases.
