MOSCOW. Jan 17 (Interfax) - No decision to release the Oleg Naydyonov trawler has been made yet and the relevant parties are expected to reach a compromise, the Russian embassy in Senegal said.
"This information is false," the embassy told Interfax on Friday, commenting on the media reports stating that the Senegalese parliament has ruled to release the trawler.
The source said the vessel will be released "as soon as the relevant parties reach a compromise."
The Oleg Naydyonov trawler was detained by Senegalese servicemen on January 3 in the Atlantic Ocean, 46 miles off the shore of Guinea-Bissau. The crew of the ship is comprised of 62 Russian citizens and 23 natives of Guinea-Bissau. Their detention was carried out without an explanation of the reasons behind it and the vessel was escorted to the military port of Dakar.
The Senegalese authorities claim that the Russian boat was fishing illegally in the economic zone of Senegal, while according to the Oleg Naydyonov's captain, the trawler was in the zone of Guinea-Bissau. Russia is preparing to file a lawsuit with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg.
Russia's fisheries agency Rosrybolovstvo said that it felt that the incident was related to the growing competition for biological resources on the western coast of Africa.