I have been thinking for a long time whether to write this article or not, but finally decided to do it.
Please don’t accept this article as a signal to action.
The article uncovers the problems really existing in the navy and the ones I personally constantly face.
The problem is called – seafarer murder aboard.
It’s a pity, but the statistics will not show us a real picture of the murder cases taking place aboard regularly. The reason is trivial. As far as I remember, there were no cases of investigation to be complete with the confession of the murder fact itself and moreover with the punishment of the offender. But why so?
The answer is on the surface.
Let’s imagine the situation. The vessel goes under a suitable flag, the crew is international, the juridical address or country of ship owner registration is Greece, Panama or Germany. No matter.
And this very situation allows vandalizing and remaining unpunished aboard.
The flag country legislation is valid aboard. That is, everything happening aboard the vessel should be subjected to the laws of the flag country. If the murder occurs on the neutral waters, it’s evidently for the legislative bodies of the flag country to investigate the fact of the murder. But you see, it’s very unlikely to expect the investigators of an insular country arrive by helicopter to investigate the murder. It’s unlikely to ever happen. The practice is as follows: the investigation actions on the seafarer’s death take place in the first port available.
And now the question rises. How could the investigation actions be conducted if the place of the murder has been washed and cleaned thoroughly, and the crew members all like one would give false testimony that they have neither seen nor heard anything?
So, there are no fingerprints, no weapon of murder and all the traces and possible evidences will be thoroughly hidden or eliminated.
What has it been done for? Just to hide the fact of the murder itself. So as in the case of appearance of substantial grounds to presume that the murder took place aboard the vessel, the vessel itself is subjected to be arrested as physical evidence and the crew has to be interrogated. As you understand it yourself, in today’s international trade and navigation, it is easier for the ship owner to conceal all the traces rather than to risk the fate of the vessel.
Thus, it’s unlikely to be possible to conduct investigation actions aboard in full, and almost always the vessel is being released and the criminal procedure is being closed in short period time.
Let’s presume that the crew is Ukrainian, and you’ll ask if it’s possible to initiate a criminal procedure by the fact of the murder in Ukraine? It’s possible to initiate, but it’s unlikely to be brought up to the end, because the Ukrainian jurisdiction is being spread on the territory of Ukraine only, and in view of the fact that the investigation actions have not been conducted by the Ukrainian investigators, the case will be closed in view of lack of evidence.
I remember a lot of such come-offs in my practice. Verbally, but not for protocol the investigators say, that if the crime has been committed beyond Ukraine, in this case they are absolutely helpless and it’s easier for them to close the case than to make a great number of enquiries and participate in the investigation.
Увы, но такова реальность. Unfortunately the reality is like this.
Whether it is possible to initiate the criminal procedure in the country of the ship owner registration – No, it’s not. And again, the legislation of the flag country is being spread aboard, and the ship owner always takes use of it.
I’ll repeat, for the ship owner it is easier to order to conceal all the traces of the crime before coming into the port, rather than subject the vessel and the crew to risk.
To make a conclusion, I’d like to say the following. Even if you know the name of the murderer, it will be very hard to prove his guilt under the law. I’d rather called it utopia.
Even if the procedure would be initiated by the fact of the seafarer death, the possibility for the offender to be convicted is very small, I’d rather called it “zero” possibility.
That is the reality, and this is how the system works, which actually doesn’t work at all.