MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gibraltar releases Iranian super tanker hours before a US Justice detention request

Gibraltar also released the captain of the Grace 1 and three officers who had been arrested and bailed without charge pending the outcome of the investigation.

The Gibraltar Government on Thursday released the Iranian supertanker Grace 1, which was seized on July 4 on suspicion it was shipping 2.1m barrels of crude oil to Syria in breach of EU sanctions.

Gibraltar said it had evidence the ship was bound for Syria when it was detained, but that Iran had now provided formal diplomatic assurances it would sail to another destination.

The authorities in Gibraltar also released the captain of the Grace 1 and three officers who had been arrested and bailed without charge pending the outcome of the investigation.

The decision to release the ship was taken hours after the US launched a separate last-minute legal move to detain the vessel and its cargo, which is owned by the National Iranian Oil Company and is worth US$ 140m.

At a short hearing on Thursday, the Supreme Court was told the Gibraltar Government had received a request from the US Department of Justice for mutual legal assistance to commence new proceedings in a bid to seize the ship.

The basis for the request was not revealed in court but must now be assessed by the Ministry for Justice and the Government Law Offices in Gibraltar, which will then decide how to proceed.

In court, Chief Justice Anthony Dudley said there was no formal US application currently before him to seize the vessel.

“That’s not before me,” he said. “There are no applications in relation to the US letters of request [for mutual legal assistance].”

On hearing that the Gibraltar Government was no longer seeking to detain the tanker under sanctions legislation, Mr. Justice Dudley added: “She is no longer a specified ship...and no longer subject to detention.”

Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said Gibraltar's mutual legal assistance authorities would now make “an objective, legal determination” of the US request for legal proceedings.

But as of Thursday afternoon, barring any fresh application before the court, he was clear the Grace 1 was free to sail from Gibraltar.

“The Grace 1 is therefore now released from detention under the Sanctions Act by operation of law as confirmed this afternoon by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,” Mr Picardo said, insisting that the detention of the ship had stopped a valuable economic resource from reaching the regime of Bashar al Assad in Syria.

“The net effect is that this operation has become the most successful implementation of the European sanctions regime to date.”

“It also amounts to a demonstration that Gibraltar is a jurisdiction that acts in keeping with the law and is committed to the rules based, international legal order.”
“Gibraltar can be proud of the role it has discharged in guarding the entrance to the Mediterranean and enforcing EU sanctions.”