AdvanFort charges quashed

Court quashes charges against 35 crew.

Court sets free crew of armed US ship, says they came for food, fuel

HENNAI: About nine months after an US ship, dubbed ‘floating armoury’, was detained off Tuticorin port with a huge cache of arms and ammunition, the Madras high court has trashed the conspiracy theory and quashed the criminal case against 35 crew members, including five Britons.

Justice P N Prakash, making it clear the crew could not be tried under the Arms Act, said on Thursday: “I hold that the anchoring of MV Seaman Guard Ohio within our territorial sea was out of necessity and their action is saved by the principle of ‘innocent passage’.”

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Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com