Thousands Sign Petition to Free Seaman Guard Ohio Crew
Image Courtesy: Human Rights at SeaThe Mission to Seafarers and families of the British guards of the anti-piracy vessel the MV Seaman Guard Ohio, who have been detained and imprisoned in India, have called for a parliamentary lobby and supporter rally to hand in a petition at Downing Street on the July 7.
This marks the day when the men will have been in detention for 1,000 days.
The Parliamentary Lobby will take place in the Boothroyd Room in Portcullis House from 10am to 11.30am, where families, supporting MPs and welfare charities will be speaking about the case.
Families will also hand in a national petition, which has 351,212 supporters that have signed to pledge their support, to the Prime Minister at Downing Street.
“Yet again we are bringing to the attention of all, the fact that men tasked with protecting seafarers from pirate attack are themselves ‘under attack’. The unwarranted detention of the crew of the MV Seaman Guard Ohio, in India, because of their possession of armaments used to defend against criminal violence, has dragged on for 1,000 days,” Canon Ken Peters, Director of Justice and Public Affairs, The Mission to Seafarers, said, adding that there is still no end in sight for the judicial process.
In January, an Indian court sentenced members of US security company AdvanFort to five years of prison for carrying weapons aboard an anti-piracy ship in 2013.
Seaman Guard Ohio’s 35 sailors, including British, Estonian and Ukrainian nationals, were intercepted by the Indian Coast Guard off the coast of Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu in October 2013, after which they were arrested and charged for failing to present proper documentation necessary to carry weapons in Indian waters.
The crew members earlier received a rejection to their plea to suspend the five-year jail sentence. The court rejected the plea on the basis of the case being sensitive and posted the main petition to June 1 for the final hearing.
The crew’s defense lawyers were trying to get the court’s permission to release the seafarers on bail due to their good behavior.
