MOSCOW. Jan 22 (Interfax) - The Russian Embassy in Dakar expects that the Senegalese authorities would release the Oleg Naydenov trawler in the near future, a high-ranking Russian diplomat in Senegal said.
"The clearance procedure for the vessel to be released after depositing the bond and being put to sea is being completed now," Russian Minister-Counselor at the Russian Embassy to Senegal said in a telephone interview with Interfax on Tuesday.
"We expect this process to be finished today or tomorrow," he said.
The ship so far cannot put to sea, he said.
Yury Parshev, the director of the Murmansk-based company Phoenix, which owns the Oleg Naydenov, told Interfax earlier on Tuesday that the Senegalese authorities had released the trawler, which Senegalese servicemen had stopped and convoyed to the Dakar port in early January.
"Good news has been received from Senegal that the country's authorities are ready to take the bail for the detained trawler," Parshev said.
It was reported earlier that Senegal insisted on the payment of a $3 million fine for violating fishing regulations. The sum was later revised several times, but Russia insisted precisely on paying a bail, since the payment of a fine would have implied admitting guilt. The trawler crew and the ship owner have denied any wrongdoing.
Senegalese military servicemen stopped the Oleg Naydenov 46 miles off the shore of Guinea-Bissau in the Atlantic Ocean on January 3. The crew was comprised of 62 Russian citizens and 23 natives of Guinea-Bissau. All of them were detained without explanation, and Captain Vadim Mantorov was handcuffed.
Senegalese authorities urged the captain to sign a document indicating that the trawler was fishing in Senegalese waters at the moment it was captured. Mantorov refused to do so, claiming that, according to the ship's logbook, it was in the waters of Guinea-Bissau.
The Russian Federal Fishery Agency (Rosrybolovstvo) attributed the incident to growing competition for fishing resources, as Russia has lately been returning to exclusive economic zones of Western African countries, where Chinese and EU fishing vessels have traditionally been active.