Mumbai: Various shipping bodies and seafarers' associations on Wednesday decided to appeal against the jail terms awarded to two Indian sailors by a South Korean court for an oil spill in December last.
"We will go for an appeal against the imprisonment of the two Indian sailors.
Other actions will be decided in a meeting to be held in Mumbai on Thursday,"
National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI) Secretary General Abdulgani Y Serang told PTI.
Office bearers of NUSI--Indian National Shipowners Association, Foreign Owners Representatives and Ship Managers' Association, Maritime Association of Shipowners, Ship Managers and Agents and Maritime Union of India--are expected to attend the meeting on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, a South Korean court jailed two Indian sailors blaming them partially for the country's worst ever oil spill.
Captain Jaspreet Chawla was sentenced to one year prison term and fined $14,000 while Chief Officer Shyam Chetan was sentenced to eight months in jail and fined $7,000.
The South Korean appeals court overturned a lower court ruling and found the Hong Kong super tanker, Hebei Spirit, and its officers partially to be blamed for the oil spill in December last year, which polluted miles and miles of South
Korean beaches. The ship's owner was fined $21,000.
The accident happened when a barge carrying a construction crane broke free ramming the anchored super tanker, boring three holes into it, which spilled 10,900 tonnes of crude oil.
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