Indonesian Navy Arrests Cambodia's Fugitive Oil Thief

Photo: Indonesian Navy Information Service

JAKARTA - Fleet Command I KRI John Lie-358 TNI captured the MT Tanker. Strovolos, contains the fugitives of the Cambodian government who committed violations in the Indonesian territory in the Anambas waters of the Riau Archipelago.

Commander of Koarmada I (Pangkoarmada I) Admiral TNI Arsyad Abdullah said that the arrest of MT. Strovolos originated from a diplomatic red notice issued by the Cambodian government.

Through its embassy, Cambodia on July 24, 2021 sent a request for support from the relevant authorities in Indonesia to detain the MT ship. The Bahamas-flagged Strovolos, GT 28,546, is suspected of committing the crime of stealing about 300,000 barrels of crude oil from Cambodia.

"KRI John Lie-358, which on July 24, 2021 carried out operations to enforce sovereignty and security patrols in the national jurisdiction, succeeded in detecting and securing MT. Strovolos in Anambas waters," Arsyad said in a statement, Wednesday, August 25.

From the results of the initial investigation, the Master of MT. Strovolos with the initials SSM, who is a Bangladeshi national, brought 19 crew members, 13 of whom were Indian citizens, 3 were Bangladeshi citizens, and 3 were Myanmar nationals.

This ship contains Crude Oil 297,686,518 Gross BBLS which sailed from Thailand to Batam by not activating the AIS (automatic identification system) when sailing in Indonesian waters. The ship also carried out anchoring without permission in the Indonesian territory.

"There is initial evidence of a violation of the applicable national positive law, KRI John Lie-358 then escorted Mt. Strovolus to Batam to be handed over and further processed by the Batam Navy Base (Lanal) on Friday, July 30, 2021," he said. Currently, the legal process of the case has been carried out by submitting Phase I from the Navy Investigators to the Batam District Attorney, then waiting for the P-21 process or being declared complete by the Batam District Attorney, "he continued.

It is known, the captain of the ship MT. The Bahamas-flagged Strovolos GT 28,546 was named a suspect for allegedly carrying out anchoring in the Indonesian territorial sea without a permit.

The captain violated Article 317 in conjunction with Article 193 paragraph (1) of Law Number 17 of 2008 concerning Shipping, with a maximum imprisonment of 1 year and a maximum fine of Rp. 200 million.