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Shipowners make payoffs to free vessels held by Indonesian Navy: sources
The dozen sources include shipowners, crew and maritime security sources all involved in the detentions and payments, which they say were either made in cash to naval officers or via bank transfer to intermediaries who told them they represented the Indonesian navy.
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Indonesian Navy personnel from KRI Usman Harun 359 conduct a visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) procedure on Taiwanese fishing vessel Hai Chien Hsing 20 on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. The Taiwanese fishing vessel conducted illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing on Indonesian waters. (Courtesy of Indonesian Navy/-)
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ore than a dozen shipowners have made payments of about $300,000 apiece to release vessels detained by the Indonesian Navy, which said they were anchored illegally in Indonesian waters near Singapore, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
The dozen sources include shipowners, crew and maritime security sources all involved in the detentions and payments, which they say were either made in cash to naval officers or via bank transfer to intermediaries who told them they represented the Indonesian navy.
Reuters was not able to independently confirm that payments were made to naval officers or establish who the final recipients of the payments were.
The detentions and payments were first reported by Lloyd's List Intelligence, an industry website.
Rear Admiral Arsyad Abdullah, the Indonesian naval fleet commander for the region, said in a written response to Reuters' questions that no payments were made to the navy and also that it did not employ any intermediaries in legal cases.
"It is not true that the Indonesian navy received or asked for payment to release the ships," Arsyad said.
He said there had been an increasing number of detentions of ships in the past three months for anchoring without permission in Indonesian waters, deviating from the sailing route or stopping mid-course for an unreasonable amount of time. All the detentions were in accordance with Indonesian law, Arsyad said.
