BEIJING (AP) – The Chinese government on Wednesday called on Indonesia to treat a group of detained Chinese sailors fairly, but gave no indication of what their oil tanker was doing when it was found at sea pulling fuel from an Iranian ship.
The Iranian-flagged MT Horse and the Panamanian-flagged MT Freya were seized on Sunday and are suspected of illegally transferring fuel at sea, locking their identification systems and other offenses. Indonesian authorities said 36 Iranian and 25 Chinese crew members were being held.
Iran has since sold oil on the black market – President Donald Trump imposed sanctions in 2018 and threatened to punish countries that bought Iranian crude oil. Iranian oil tankers are disabling tracking devices to hide their destinations.
Indonesian authorities have confirmed to the Chinese embassy that the crew members are “in good working order,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
The embassy asked the Indonesian authorities “to investigate the matter impartially under the law, and to safeguard the health, safety and legitimate rights and interests of the crew,” Zhao said.
He did not provide details of the owner or destination of the Chinese ship.
On Wednesday, both tankers had anchored off Batam Island in the Riau Islands south of Singapore, the Indonesian government said.
In August, US officials said the Trump administration seized 1.1 million barrels of gasoline from four tankers en route from Iran to Venezuela.
In 2018, satellite photos captured ships transferring oil to North Korean ships off the Chinese coast in a possible attempt to circumvent UN sanctions against North Korea. The Chinese government said it would investigate but has not yet released any results.