A Tunisian judge detained seven crew members of a ship that sank off Gabes in April, as authorities investigated whether the ship may have been deliberately sunk.
According to Reuters, Tunisian officials said that the ship “Xelo”, sank while heading from Equatorial Guinea to Malta and the Tunisian navy had rescued all seven crew members.
Later, officials noted that a specialized diving team sent to counter a potential environmental disaster found the ship cargo did not contain fuel, but rather was empty.
According to Mohamed Karay, a spokesman for the Gabes court, “the investigative judge issued a detention decision against the ship’s crew.” Mr. Karay had previously said an investigation was being conducted to determine if the ship sank under normal circumstances or was sank to obtain compensation from insurance companies.
The crew claimed the ship’s route documentation had been lost, and that there was a conflict in the information they provided.
