Noboru Sakashita, captain of Japanese fishing boat, charged for poaching, was handed over to the Japanese side
Noboru Sakashita, captain of Japanese fishing boat, charged for poaching in the district of South Kuriles, was handed over to the Japanese side, RBC reports with reference to NTV. He was taken on board the Rosa Rugosa ship, which is to take Sakashita to his native Island of Hokkaido by the evening. Noboru Sakashita paid to the Russian side 495,000 rubles in fine for poaching and damage done to Russia’s marine biological resources.
Noboru Sakashita on August 16 steered his fishing boat into Russian territorial waters off the Tanfilyev Island of the Kuriles chain to have caught over one ton of crabs. When the Russian border guards tried to detain the fishing boat, the captain and crew made an attempt to escape.
In order to make the intruder vessel stop the border guards fired warning shots. By accident a thirty-five-year-old Japanese fisherman was lethally wounded in the head. The two other crewmembers and the captain were not hurt. The body of the killed fisherman was handed over to the Japanese authorities on August 19.
The fishing boat was detained and taken to the port of Yuzhno-Kurilsk for investigation.
When questioned, Sakashita pled guilty of poaching in Russian territorial waters. On August 30, two crewmembers were handed over to the Japanese authorities.