An Israeli tanker captain got a one-year suspended sentence and was fined the equivalent of $2,800 by an Egyptian court Tuesday for allegedly causing an oil spill in the Gulf of Suez in October.
Capt. Yosef Zvi, master of the government-owned tanker Nyuta, was not present when the admiralty court in A-Tur pronounced sentence and ordered him to pay an additional, unspecified sum to cover the cost of cleaning up the oil.
The captain, who was represented by legal counsel, insists his ship was not responsible for polluting Egyptian territorial waters.
After the alleged spill, the ship was detained and held for more than three weeks at the East Zeid Bay oil port.
The ship and its company were released through the personal intervention of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
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