Lebanon allows departure of ship accused of carrying stolen Ukrainian grain
By Timour Azhari
BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanon’s high prosecutor has lifted his seizure order on a ship accused by Ukraine of carrying stolen flour and barley, permitting it to sail after discovering “no felony offence dedicated”, a senior judicial supply informed Reuters.
The ship, the Laodicea, stays unable to sail in the meanwhile attributable to one other seizure order issued by a choose within the northern Lebanese metropolis of Tripoli, the place the ship is docked, on Monday, the supply stated.
That seizure order was solely legitimate for 72 hours, the choose who issued it beforehand informed Reuters.
An official on the Ukrainian Embassy in Beirut stated he couldn’t instantly remark, and that the embassy would maintain a information convention on Wednesday.
Ukraine has stated that the Syrian-flagged ship was carrying some 10,000 tonnes of flour and barley plundered by Russia from Ukrainian shops following its February invasion of the nation.
The Russian Embassy in Lebanon has stated it had no data on the cargo. Moscow has beforehand denied stealing Ukrainian grain.
An official from the corporate that owns the cargo beforehand denied it was stolen and stated that the ship would sail to close by Syria ought to or not it’s allowed to go away Tripoli.
The Laodicea arrived in Lebanon on July 27 and two days later high prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat ordered it seized pending investigations following a protest from the Ukrainian embassy and different Western nations.
On Monday, Ukraine requested Lebanon to cooperate on a felony inquiry into the ship opened by a Ukrainian choose. Ukrainian authorities say the Laodicea travelled to a port in Russian-occupied Crimea closed to worldwide delivery and that it took on cargo there earlier than crusing to Lebanon.
Below a July 22 U.N.-brokered secure passage deal, the primary ship carrying Ukrainian grain to world markets from its Black Sea ports since Russia’s invasion seemed set to reach in Istanbul on Tuesday evening, Turkey stated.
The ship, the Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni, is to proceed to its last vacation spot in Tripoli in Lebanon after inspections by U.N., Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish officers.
A Ukrainian Embassy official stated Kyiv resumed grain exports to Lebanon in mid-July by way of ports on the Danube river bordering Romania.
The embassy stated Lebanon would obtain preferential therapy attributable to its official stance in opposition to Russia’s invasion and that Kyiv would assist Beirut because it faces bread shortages attributable to a three-year-long monetary disaster.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari; enhancing by Andrew Heavens and Mark Heinrich)
