Georgia arrests ex-skipper for unauthorized visit to Abkhazia
A former skipper who is a national of Azerbaijan was put in two-month pretrial detention in Georgia on Wednesday for the "violation of the rules on visiting the sea region of Abkhazia" after the tanker he commanded brought 2,600 tonnes of gasoline to Abkhazia on June 14 without permission from the Georgian authorities, Interfax reports.
Ilgar Imanverdiyev, former captain of the Panamanian-flagged tanker Buket, was arrested at the Georgian port of Batumi when he was undergoing passport control aboard a Sierra Leone-flagged ship on August 24. The city court of Poti ordered him to be jailed for two months pending trial.
The Georgian border police said the reason for Imanverdiyev's arrest was "group violation of the rules on visiting the sea region of Abkhazia."
Georgian coast guards detained the Buket last week. The ship's current captain and crew are also under arrest.
Earlier this week, the Poti city court ordered a two-month pretrial detention for the captain of the ship Afro Star, which had also visited Abkhazia without permission from the Georgian authorities.