A three-month campaign by the US Department of Justice to seize the oil cargo of an Iranian-flagged aframax in Greece has failed, thwarted by a supreme court decision in Athens.

In a ruling handed down on Tuesday, Greece’s top judges found no reason to overturn a previous verdict by a lower Greek court in June, which had allowed the 115,400-dwt Lana (built 2003) to take all its oil and leave Greek waters.