MOSCOW, January 17. /ITAR-TASS/. A task group of the Senegalese parliament has decided to ask the country’s President Macky Sall to help settle the conflict around the Russian fishing trawler Oleg Naidenov that was detained in Senegal in early January, a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry said on Friday.

The decision was taken at the group’s meeting on Friday that was attended by a representative of the Russian fisheries agency in Dakar.

“The Russian side asked to support the Russian foreign ministry’s plea to the Senegalese authorities to have the Russian trawler and its crew released as soon as possible and to settle the conflict situation by means of law,” the ministry said.

According to the representative, the Senegalese lawmakers stressed the importance of promoting mutually beneficial partnership between Russia and Senegal and took a decision to invite the country’s minister of fisheries and maritime affairs to the parliamentary hearings and ask President Sall to help settle the conflict around the Russian trawler.

The lawmakers also discussed a range of issues of cooperation in the area of fishing between Russia and Senegal.

The Oleg Naidenov suspected of illegal fishing within Senegalese waters was seized by the Senegalese military 46 miles of Guinea-Bissau on January 4 with 82 crew onboard, including 62 Russians and 20 citizens of Guinea-Bissau, and convoyed to the port of Dakar on January 5. During the seizure several sailors were injured.

The Oleg Naidenov is owned by private company Fenix registered in Murmansk, the extreme northwest part of Russia. It is a big fishing boat of Moonzund type, 120 meters long, built in Germany in 1989.

On Friday, the ship owner paid a bail of one million U.S. dollars but there has been no response from the Senegalese authorities. The crew remains on board the vessel under control of the Senegalese law enforcers.