LONDON, February 5. /TASS/. A British court sentenced the captain of the container ship Solong, Russian sailor Vladimir Motin, to six years in prison for negligence causing the deadly collision of two vessels in 2025 in the North Sea off the UK coast, a TASS correspondent reported.
The verdict, announced by Justice Andrew Baker of the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales (Old Bailey), says that the 11 months that the sailor spent in pretrial detention will be credited towards his jail time. He will be eligible for parole after 37 months.
The judge said that basic facts of the collision "suggest a ship unaware of the ship ahead" and that was the "most likely" explanation of the disaster.
Baker said that minutes before the collision, Motin did nothing to prevent it and issued no orders to the ship’s crew. He also described Motin’s version of events as "extremely implausible."
On March 10 last year, the Portuguese-flagged container ship Solong collided with the tanker Stena Immaculate, which was anchored in the North Sea. As a result of a cargo tank rupture, some of the aviation fuel carried by the tanker spilled into the sea. Explosions occurred on board the Stena Immaculate, after which both vessels caught fire.
Five Russians, including the captain, were among the crew members of the container ship. None were injured. One sailor from the Solong, Filipino Mark Angelo Pernia, went missing. The search for him was called off on the first day, and he is presumed dead. Following the incident, Motin was detained and charged with gross negligence manslaughter. He was the sole defendant in the case.