The ITF HQ’s in London
Responding to the Spanish Supreme Court’s decision to sentence Captain Mangouras to two years imprisonment over the 2002 Prestige oil spill, ITF seafarers’ section chair Dave Heindel said: “This decision represents the dying gasps of a 14 year old attempt to deflect blame onto the shoulders of an octogenarian man, who has been cleared in the court of world opinion and by his peers.
28/01/2016 – “Thankfully it is likely to be as unenforceable as it is illogical. This innocent man cannot again be made to sit needlessly in jail.”
He concluded: “The Mangouras case was one of the worst examples of the kneejerk criminalisation of seafarers. The ITF, like many other organisations and individuals, was able to support him during that ordeal. This latest piece of victimisation reminds us that we must all remain vigilant to protect seafarers from these injustices.”
