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Russian ship owner to appeal against Norwegian fines

The ship owner of a Russian fishing vessel arrested by Norwegian coast guards and fined for a total of 450 thousand krones said he would pay the fine

ARKHANGELSK, October 7 (Itar-Tass) —— The ship owner of a Russian fishing vessel arrested by Norwegian coast guards and fined for a total of 450 thousand krones said he would pay the fine, but would later appeal against the court judgment.

The Sapfir-2 trawler from Murmansk was arrested late in September in the 200-mile zone around Spitsbergen and towed to the port of Tromse.

Ship owner representative Andrei Zaika said on Thursday the captain and the company were fined for 50 and 100 thousand Norwegians krones respectively and another fine of 300 thousand krones was imposed for the damage.

“We disagree with the judgment and will appeal against it in a Norwegian court,” he told Tass. “Lawyers believe a fine of 300 thousand for three tons of fish onboard is too much,” Zaika said and added the ship owner will nevertheless pay the fine immediately to have the trawler freed on Friday.

The Russian foreign ministry protested to the Norwegian ambassador in Moscow over the arrest of Sapfir-2 which was the sixth detention in the past three months of a Russian fishing vessel by Norwegian authorities in the 200-mile zone around Spitsbergen which Norway unilaterally declared its sovereignty and enforced national fishing legislation in it.