Captain of Iranian tanker accuses UK marines of using ‘brute force’

MADRID — The captain of an Iranian tanker seized in Gibraltar, provoking a diplomatic crisis between Tehran and London, has accused Royal Marines of unnecessary “brute force” when detaining the ship, the BBC reports.

The supertanker was seized on July 4 by Gibraltar police and British special forces from the United Kingdom off the overseas British territory.

The ship was suspected of carrying oil to war-torn Syria in violation of EU sanctions.

In an interview with the BBC released today, the Indian captain, who asked to remain anonymous, says Royal Marines boarded the Grace 1 ship and made his unarmed crew kneel on deck at gunpoint.

In a statement, Britain’s defense ministry says it “was a standard boarding that was carried out in full compliance with international rules and norms.”

In the interview, the captain says that in the early hours of July 4, he was radioed a police request to board his ship and lowered his ladder.

But he says before anyone could board, a military helicopter landed on the ship and Royal Marines came on.

“They didn’t care whether I was master…we had 28 unarmed crew. I was in a state of shock, everybody was in a state of shock,” he is quoted as saying.

“How do you come on a ship like this with armed forces and such brute force. For what reason?” he asks. The marines could have simply boarded and told him he was under arrest, he added according to the BBC.

In a statement, police in Gibraltar say the military intervened to support them, “applying the minimum use of force maxim.”

The Gibraltar government, meanwhile, says it had evidence contradicting the account of the captain, who has already been questioned.

— AFP