An Iranian court has fined and sentenced 34 seafarers from two overseas tankers as its crackdown against fuel smuggling continues.
Press TV reported that the crew members were jailed for five years.
The head of the Iranian Judiciary’s local branch in Hormozgan, Mojtaba Ghahramani, said the seafarers were arrested after their two foreign-flagged tankers were seized in recent weeks near the Iranian island of Abu Musa.
A collective penalty of IRR 4.3trn ($5.37m) was imposed on the captain and his two deputies from one vessel, which had been carrying more than 4.25m litres of smuggled fuel. The captain and two officers from the other ship were found guilty of smuggling more than 1.7m litres.
They were ordered to pay more than IRR 2.375trn.
The tankers will be released when the money has been paid.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps also said it had seized two Tanzanian-flagged vessels carrying 1.5m litres of smuggled diesel on Tuesday in the Middle East Gulf.
The semi-official Fars news agency reported that the tankers were named the Sea Ranger and the Salama, with 25 foreign crew members on board in total.
No tankers of that name exist in maritime databases.
Shafaq News said the vessels were moved to the port of Bushehr.
The ships were intercepted while trying to leave Iranian waters.
The confiscated fuel will be handed over to the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Co for redistribution within the domestic supply chain, state news agency IRNA quoted Brigadier General Masoud Foroutan as saying.
The diesel was estimated to be worth about $1.3m.
At the end of March and into early April, Iran arrested three tankers on suspicion of smuggling.
