A court has acquitted the master of a Russian ship who was accused of breaching sanctions after leaving a French port the day after the invasion of Ukraine.
Prosecutors had been seeking €16m ($17.5m) in fines from the master of the 8,831-gt, ro-ro Baltic Leader (built 2000) amid questions over whether the vessel was owned by a sanctioned Russian state-owned bank.
Lawyers for the Russian national said at a trial in Rouen last month that he was earning only €2,000 a month and questioned why only he was being pursued. The master, who did not appear in court and was not identified, was acquitted on Thursday, legal sources confirmed.
It is understood that he is back in Russia and working for a new employer. He was never detained but was questioned several times by French authorities and his vessel was searched.
Prosecutors claimed that the Baltic Leader left the port of Rouen on 25 February 2022 with a cargo of wind turbines, in breach of European Union sanctions because of its ownership structure.
The ship was detained the following day in Boulogne-sur-Mer amid questions over whether it belonged to Russia’s Promsvyazbank.
Prosecutors said that documents discovered on board the ship when it was seized suggested it belonged to PSB Leasing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Promsvyazbank.
The European Union sanctioned Promsvyazbank on 23 February 2022 for providing financial support to the Russian military, which then had troops massed along the border with Ukraine. The listing said the bank was directly instructed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But the master’s legal team said the ship had been transferred to another company shortly before the invasion. They cited a court ruling in December 2022 that ordered the release of the vessel, which said it had been transferred to Russia’s Transmorflot on 16 February 2022.
Transmorflot was not under sanctions at the time of the ownership transfer but was sanctioned by the US in May 2022.
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