Two crew members of the Panama-registered tanker TOSA have been barred from leaving Taiwan to assist prosecutors in the investigation into the sinking of a Taiwanese fishing boat on Friday, prosecutors said yesterday.
The TOSA is suspected of hitting the 99-tonne Hsing Tong Chuan No. 86 fishing vessel that sank near the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) early on Friday.
Eleven of the 13 crew members of the sunken ship, based in Suao (蘇澳), were rescued, but ship captain Ho Si-chuan (何西川) and chief engineer Hsu Tsung-wen (許聰文) remain missing.
The 160,000-tonne TOSA was escorted to Hualien Harbor by a Taiwanese coast guard vessel on Saturday before an investigation could be launched.
Huang Yi-chun (黃怡君), a Hualien chief prosecutor, said that both navigation and track maps as well as the results of police work showed that the Panamanian tanker was passing the disaster site when the fishing boat was sinking.
During questioning, Huang said that neither the tanker’s first mate, second mate nor its night-watchman admitted that the tanker had collided with the fishing boat.
But they did not deny that the tanker was passing the site as the boat was sinking, the prosecutor said.
Huang said that if the two Taiwanese crewmen aboard the sunken ship were dead, certain tanker crew members could be indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter.
Against this backdrop, Huang said, the tanker’s second mate and night-watchman have been barred from leaving Taiwan pending further investigations into the cause of the sinking.
Huang said the tanker’s owner was willing to pay damages if there was sufficient evidence to prove that the tanker was liable in the sinking.
The Hsing Tong Chuan crew members who were rescued include one Taiwanese fisherman, two Chinese, six Indonesians and two Filipinos.Two crew members of the Panama-registered tanker TOSA have been barred from leaving Taiwan to assist prosecutors in the investigation into the sinking of a Taiwanese fishing boat on Friday, prosecutors said yesterday.
The TOSA is suspected of hitting the 99-tonne Hsing Tong Chuan No. 86 fishing vessel that sank near the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) early on Friday.
Eleven of the 13 crew members of the sunken ship, based in Suao (蘇澳), were rescued, but ship captain Ho Si-chuan (何西川) and chief engineer Hsu Tsung-wen (許聰文) remain missing.
The 160,000-tonne TOSA was escorted to Hualien Harbor by a Taiwanese coast guard vessel on Saturday before an investigation could be launched.
Huang Yi-chun (黃怡君), a Hualien chief prosecutor, said that both navigation and track maps as well as the results of police work showed that the Panamanian tanker was passing the disaster site when the fishing boat was sinking.
During questioning, Huang said that neither the tanker’s first mate, second mate nor its night-watchman admitted that the tanker had collided with the fishing boat.
But they did not deny that the tanker was passing the site as the boat was sinking, the prosecutor said.
Huang said that if the two Taiwanese crewmen aboard the sunken ship were dead, certain tanker crew members could be indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter.
Against this backdrop, Huang said, the tanker’s second mate and night-watchman have been barred from leaving Taiwan pending further investigations into the cause of the sinking.
Huang said the tanker’s owner was willing to pay damages if there was sufficient evidence to prove that the tanker was liable in the sinking.
The Hsing Tong Chuan crew members who were rescued include one Taiwanese fisherman, two Chinese, six Indonesians and two Filipinos.
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