The crew of a Panama-flagged tanker seized by Iran last year has been sentenced to a total 22 years in prison by the revolutionary court of Bandar Abbas, Iranian state media reported on Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear how many crew members were sentenced and how long each of them were jailed for.

In October 2022, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized a foreign vessel carrying 11 million litres of smuggled fuel in the Gulf.

The contents of the tanker named Ariana has been transferred to the National Iranian Oil Company according to the judicial order.

Iran, which has some of the world’s cheapest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the plunge in the value of its national currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighbouring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Alison Williams)