Hearing of Estonian ship guards postponed in India

BNS
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Photo: Dmitri Pappel

The court hearing of Estonian maritime security guards held in India which was supposed to take place on Monday in Tuticorin was postponed because two accused Indian citizens were missing from the hearing.

A new hearing is to take place on Friday, spokespeople for the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The Supreme Court of India on at the beginning of July announced it would not accept the case of Estonian maritime security guards held in India since October 2013 and sent the case back to the Tamil Nadu court in Madurai.

The police of India's southernmost state Tamil Nadu arrested the crew and armed security personnel including 14 Estonian guards on board the anti-piracy vessel Seaman Guard Ohio on Oct. 18, 2013. They were charged in December and released on bail in April 2014.

The high court of Tamil Nadu in July 2014 cleared all members of the crew and ship guards except for the captain of charges of illegally carrying weapons. The Tamil Nadu police appealed against the ruling in the Supreme Court at the end of August.

In May the maritime guards got back their personal belongings.

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