War criminal Mir Quasem family’s oil tanker in troubled waters as court orders it to be ‘arrested’

The High Court has ordered that an oil tanker owned by executed war criminal Mir Quasem's family be ‘arrested’.

Chittagong Bureaubdnews24.com
Published : 13 Oct 2016, 08:22 PM
Updated : 20 Oct 2016, 12:57 PM

The court order came in response to a case initiated by Jewel Rahman, the captain of the vessel MV Fazle Rabbi, relating to outstanding pay of the crew of the tanker.

The case was started on Oct 10 and it seeks redress against outstanding salary totalling more than Tk 10 million of as many as 18 crew members of the ship.

Captain Rahman told bdnews24.com that the judge ordered the ship to be ‘arrested’ and fixed Nov 21 as the date for the next hearing. The defendants have been directed to submit written statements by that date.

The Eden Line-owned ship is currently anchored at the dock jetty at Chittagong Port. Mir Quasem's son Salman bin Quasem runs the company.

The captain alleged that despite the ship being in operation, the crew have not been paid for months until Sep 30.

He said repeated requests with the proprietors have gone unheeded, which forced him to sue the company at the Admiralty Court.

The court order has also been sent to the Chittagong Port authorities, Captain Jewel said.

The vessel's Third Engineer Debashish Pal who worked in the ship in June said the contractual pay worth Tk 1.5 million is pending with the ship authorities.

He also said crew members had their payment due and repeated requests for pay have gone unanswered.

(Amended on the basis of the court order, in English, released after the story was originally published)