Antara News, Monday, October 18, 2010 19:31 WIB
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Foreign Affairs Ministry is still investigating the reported arrest of 13 Indonesian sailors by Malaysian authorities recently.
The report was first released by Bernama News Agency last Oct 17. According to the report, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) detained four foreign vessels for illegally transferring 125,752 liters of oil in Pangerang waters near Kota Tinggi last Oct 16. It was said there were 13 Indonesian sailors in the vessels.
"We are still collecting information on whether there were Indonesians among the arrested sailors or not. One thing I can say is that the government will always give legal support to Indonesian citizens abroad," said a foreign ministry spokesman here on Monday.
Bernama News Agency quoted MMEA southern region operations director Captain Mohd Zubil Mat Som as saying that there were 52 crew inside the four vessels comprising 15 from Thailand, 13 from Indonesia, 12 from the Philippines, eight from Myanmar and four from Holland. The crew members were aged between 20 to 59 years.
Mohd Zubil said the four vessels were spotted by a MMEA patrolling team on KM Manjong at two locations about 1.8 nautical miles off Tanjung Ayam, Pangerang, between 10 am and 5.30 pm on Sunday, during an operation dubbed `Ops Perkasa Selatan`.
"Following inspections, we found that the four vessels were conducting illegal oil transfer, which is an offense under the Merchant Shipping Ordinance 1952 and Federation Light Dues Act 1953," he said.
He added that the vessels were registered in Kiribati, Bangkok, Freetown (Sierra Leone) and Rotterdam.
