Indian captain Ajay Pant jailed in UK over Russian ‘shadow fleet’ tanker, sparking outrage among seafarers

Indian merchant navy officer Captain Ajay Pant is being held in the United Kingdom on charges of flouting UK sanctions against Russia by commandeering his ship, the MT Smyrtos, which British soldiers captured while it was in international waters. The first-of-its-kind case has prompted outrage among seafarers worldwide, as his wife tries to free him.

His wife, Ritu Pant, is based in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. She says she always made sure her husband told her two things before departing on an assignment — the name of his ship and his emergency contact details, in case of a crisis.

That is what she did on April 25, when Ajay left Paradip Port in the state of Odisha on board the MT Smyrtos, a crude oil tanker. Ajay had been a sailor for 18 years and spent six or seven months a year at sea.

Yet it was through a social media post that Ritu learned in mid-June that the ship had been captured — not by pirates, but by the British armed forces. The MT Smyrtos is under Western sanctions for allegedly working as part of Russia’s shadow fleet, a network of vessels that helps Moscow evade United States and European economic restrictions to continue selling oil and gas amid the war on Ukraine.

Ajay now faces charges of flouting UK sanctions against Russia by commandeering the ship. It is the first known instance of a European nation keeping a ship captain under arrest on such grounds, and lawyers and seafarer rights groups say it could set a worrying precedent. ‘This is a unique case,’ said Tony Patten, the UK representative at the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF).

Other European countries have also taken over ships they accuse of violating sanctions against Russia, but while they have kept the vessels, they have so far let the sailors go. In March this year, a captain of a suspected Russian shadow fleet vessel was prosecuted in absentia by a French court. A Finnish court dismissed charges against the captain of a Russian oil tanker accused of damaging undersea cables in the Baltic Sea for lack of jurisdiction. In other cases, European nations have set commercial sailors free with fines. By contrast, Ajay faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

On June 14, the MT Smyrtos was passing through the English Channel when Royal Marines Commandos intercepted it, in a first-of-its-kind operation authorised by then British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. According to the British Ministry of Defence, Chinook, Merlin Mk4 and Wildcat helicopters from the Maritime Air Group, a Royal Air Force P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, a frigate and a mine countermeasures ship took part in the operation. At the time, the ship was in international waters, outside the UK’s territorial jurisdiction.

The ship was carrying oil from Russia and was on track to pass through the Suez Canal on its way to India. ‘This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide,’ Starmer said in a post on X.

What followed was equally unprecedented: charges of allegedly breaching sanctions against Russia were brought against Ajay, who has since been in detention in the UK. After an initial court hearing, his bail was denied.

David Hammond, a lawyer and founder of Human Rights At Sea, a nonprofit and UN-accredited organisation advocating for people at sea, said the Smyrtos case was ‘very unique’, because the outcome will determine how coastal states enforce sanctions against vessels — sanctions, in this case, not approved by the United Nations. ‘It is unique in terms of the interception and the interdiction of a vessel that had been sanctioned, having passed through the English Channel as an international transit corridor. It’s, in my understanding, not happened before,’ he said.

Hammond said the case also underscores the risks of the ‘criminalisation of seafarers’. ‘In the case of the Smyrtos, it could be argued that Captain Pant is being criminalised for simply doing his job,’ he said, adding that the direction in which the British courts rule will set a new precedent. Patten of the ITF echoed similar sentiments: ‘Our stance is that seafarers being penalised automatically when something like this happens isn’t fair.’

In a statement shared with Al Jazeera, the International Maritime Organization confirmed at least 66 sailors were killed in various conflicts this year, with hundreds of others injured and many still missing and feared dead. ‘It has been a horrible year for people at sea,’ Patten said.