Greek justice has awarded compensation to the master of a container ship who had been held in the country for years on false smuggling accusations.
In an unusual twist, judges also extended the indemnity to the master’s wife, who was never personally accused of wrongdoing.
According to Lumar SA, the container ship’s owner, this is the first known case in which Greek courts have awarded third-party compensation under a new provision introduced into the country’s criminal law in 2019.
The rulings concern Ukrainian master Sergii Nevecheria, 64, who was jailed in 2017 after authorities accused him and his crew of carrying sanctioned explosives on board the 1,042-teu Mekong Spirit (built 1996).
Lumar had vehemently denied the charges, claiming the cargo was for civil use and fully complied with United Nations and European Union sanctions.
A Greek court cleared Lumar, Nevecheria and his crew in 2020, ruling that the ship’s entire cargo was legal and documented.
According to the verdict, “there was no evidence that the goods transported were going to be delivered to paramilitary groups or rebel groups”.
Instead, end-user certificates proved that almost all of the 29 containers headed for Sudan were going to be handed over to a public mining company.
Throughout this legal Odyssey, Nevecheria was in prison or prevented from leaving Greece.
To compensate him for his troubles, a Greek court awarded him on 9 May a sum of €30 ($30.3) for each day he was incarcerated between late May and early December 2017.
In a separate ruling on 8 July, Valentina Nevecheria received compensation as well, to the tune of €6,030.
Valentina Nevecheria had been campaigning for her husband’s release.
“The injustice is sickening,” she said in July 2017, six weeks into Sergii’s imprisonment.
Starlio Shipholding, the Mekong Spirit’s registered owner, received about €60,000 — the maximum allowed under Greek law — for the three years in which the vessel was detained in Greece under their ownership.
Heavy loss
These legal victories do little to change the devastating damage Lumar suffered.
The company went out of business and creditor SEB Bank put the Mekong Spirit under the hammer to recoup about $10.5m in debt.
Despite its age and the fact that it had been idling for more than four years, booming container ship markets helped the 25-year-old ship fetch a remarkable $4.36m at auction in December 2021.
The Polish-built vessel is believed to have been bought by a US investment fund and is currently undergoing repairs in Turkey.
Lumar principal Alexey Dircenko had a tough time as well. The 63-year-old, Latvian-born owner was held in Madrid for more than a year as Spanish prosecutors ignored the Greek acquittal and launched their own investigation into the case.
Dircenko was released last December.
Lumar expects additional vindication in follow-up trials.
“We expect that with the latest Greek decision, we will score more victories at the European Court of Human Rights [ECHR] and international tribunals,” its manager, Boris Lunoff, said in an email.
Lunoff himself spent six months in a Spanish jail.
