A district court in Batam, Indonesia has sentenced the captain of Singapore-flagged cargo ship Cramoil Equity (MMSI:312343000) to seven-years’ jail for entering Indonesian waters with barrels of hazardous liquid waste.
In mid-June 2021, the Batam Port Authority received a tip that the then Belize-flagged 38-metre-long Cramoil Equity was carrying hazardous waste without a permit in the waters of Batam. The Authority reportedly asked the ship to leave, but said that it did not comply.
A couple of days after this the patrol team found the Cramoil Equity still within Indonesian waters. A team boarded the vessel and found 20 bulk containers of toxic waste on the back deck, each containing about 250 gallons of liquid.
The transportation of hazardous waste into Indonesian waters without a permit is illegal and is an offence punishable by up to a maximum of 15 years in prison.
This month it was announced that in June the captain, identified as 48-year-old Indonesian national Chosmus Palandi, was convicted of transporting hazardous waste and sentenced to seven years in jail.
Indonesia’s ministry of the environment is working with the Indonesian embassy in Singapore to try to track down the cargo’s origin. The vessel’s operator, Cramoil Singapore, had previously been cited by Singaporean authorities for alleged discharge of untreated wastewater.