Court orders return of Taiwanese fishing boat

07/10/2008 18:35:54

The Federal Court in Darwin has ordered that a foreign fishing boat seized in Australian waters earlier this year be returned to its Taiwanese owner.

It's a major win for the owner who always claimed the ship's captain had made an honest mistake.

Our reporter Rebecca Hewett says the 34 metre, steel-hulled fishing trawler, the Mitra 2139, was seized in Australian waters in March this year and brought to Darwin with 16 crew and two tonnes of fish on board .

At the time, the seizure was heralded as a victory for the Rudd Government's fight against illegal fishing, with the federal fisheries minister Tony Burke putting out a media release saying it was the biggest foreign fishing boat caught in a year.

But the ship's Taiwanese owners took the case to court and today Federal Court judge John Reeves ordered that the boat and everything on it be returned to them.

The judge also ordered the Commonwealth Government to pay them for the loss of the fish and pick up their legal costs.

Meantime, the owners of the Taiwanese fishing boat say they're worried about the ship's captain, who's in immigration detention in Darwin.

Criminal proceedings against the captain have been on hold, pending the Federal Court outcome ... and he's been in detention in Darwin since April.

A translator from Melbourne, Yu Chen, has been helping the owners deal with the Australian court system, and says they're happy with the court's decision but are worried about the captain.

"He's still there in the detention centre whereas all the other crew members have already been sent home so he's been in there for a few months alone and he's getting ah depressed I guess."

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