This still image from video released by the US Navy shows the Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi surrounded by Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on May 3, 2023. Iran has taken back a 10,000-ton oil tanker that had been "illegally" used by a foreign company for five years, an Iranian judicial official said on May 12, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)
TEHRAN – Iran has taken back a 10,000-ton oil tanker that had been "illegally" used by a foreign company for five years, an Iranian judicial official said on Friday.
Mojtaba Qahremani, the chief justice of the southern Iranian province of Hormuzgan, identified the oil tanker as "Purity," reported Mizan news agency of the Iranian judiciary.
Investigations revealed that the foreign company had been using the tanker to smuggle fuel, said Mojtaba Qahremani, the chief justice of the southern Iranian province of Hormuzgan
Certain individuals inside Iran had forged the oil tanker's documents, allowing it to be "illegally" leased to a foreign company and depriving its Iranian owner of its benefits, Qahremani was quoted as saying, without elaborating on the name of the foreign firm.
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The Iranian judicial authorities started looking into the case after receiving a complaint from the Iranian company that owns the tanker, which claimed that a foreign company had signed a contract with it for renting the oil tanker but had cut off contact after receiving the vessel, Qahremani added.
Investigations revealed that the foreign company had been using the tanker to smuggle fuel, said Qahremani, adding the Navy of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) seized the tanker a few days ago off the coast of Parsian County in southern Iran.
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Qahremani added that the tanker had been moved to the Assaluyeh port in southern Iran to unload its fuel cargo.