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Suit filed in relation to disappearance of boat with Russians in Sea of Japan
02/13/2009 Source:Translation: RusNavy.com
The Far East Investigative Committee in charge of Transportation of the Russian Prosecutor’s Service on Thursday filed a criminal suit in relation to the disappearance of the boat JI WON No.1 late last December in the Sea of Japan with 12 Russians aboard, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutors’ Service announced on Friday.
The suit has been based on Part 3 of Article 263 of the Russian criminal code (violation of safety rules in the exploitation of rail, air, or sea transport). The charge carries a maximum sentence of 7 years in jail.
The body of a sailor presumably form the boat was recovered at sea along the Hokkaido coast on January 19. Another four Russian passports were found on the body.
Officials from the South Korean company that owned the boat had earlier announced that the boat, which had 12 Primorie residents aboard, was working near Japanese coasts.
All communication with the boat was lost in late December, and the owners alerted Japanese authorities. The last contact with the ship took place on December 25. The search for the boat was suspended this February.
Japanese authorities had showed the ship’s travel manifest to the Russian side.
According to the document, the following people were aboard the ship: the captain, Boris Ogorodnikov (born in 1960), senior aide Konstantin Prokopiv (born in 1973), senior engineer Valery Shpakovsky (1960), machinists Denis Larchenko (1983) and Alexander Kravchenko (1968), seamen Vadim Pleshkunov (1988), Eugeny Grachev (1987), Ivan Protsenko (1983), Igor Morozniuk (1984), Andrey Goriachy (1970), Vitaly Chernov (1972), cook Alexander Golov (1961).
Prosecutors said they were establishing how Russians came to be employed on a foreign ship, the nature of the work they were engaged in, and the last time they spoke to their parents.
“During the initial investigation we will conduct the necessary examinations and questioning of the families. We have forwarded requests for help to the competent organs of South Korea and Japan. These actions by the investigation are directed at establishing important facts of what happened,” prosecutors say.
Piotr Osichansky, the president of the Far East Association of Naval Captains, earlier added that the ship, most probably, sank after getting caught in a storm.