BEIJING (AP) – The Chinese government on Wednesday called on Indonesia to treat a group of detained Chinese sailors fairly, but gave no indication of what their tanker was doing when it was found at sea transferring fuel from an Iranian ship.
MT Horse with Iranian flag and MT Freya with Panamanian flag were confiscated on Sunday and are suspected of illegally transferring fuel to the sea, shutting down their identification systems and other crimes. Indonesian authorities said 36 members of the Iranian crew and 25 Chinese had been detained.
Iran has been selling oil on the black market since President Donald Trump imposed sanctions in 2018 and threatened to penalize countries that bought Iranian oil. Iranian oil companies turn off tracking equipment to hide their destinations.
Indonesian authorities have confirmed to the Chinese embassy that the crew members are “in good condition,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
The embassy called on the Indonesian authorities “to investigate the case impartially in accordance with the law and to ensure the health, safety and legitimate rights and interests of the crew,” Zhao said.
He did not give details about the owner or destination of the Chinese ship.
On Wednesday, both tanks were anchored off Batam Island in the Riau Islands, south of Singapore, the Indonesian government said.
In August, US officials said the Trump administration had seized 1.1 million barrels of gasoline from four tanks connected from Iran to Venezuela.
In 2018, the ships were captured in satellite photos transferring oil to North Korean ships off the coast of China in a possible effort to evade UN sanctions on North Korea. The Chinese government has said it will investigate, but has not yet announced the results.