By Libya Herald reporter.
Tripoli, 8 September 2015:
Libya’s Attorney General (AG) has announced that the Ibrahim Jadran oil tanker ‘‘Morning Glory’’ is to . . .[restrict]be put up for auction.
It will be recalled that the then North Korean-flagged oil tanker had illegally loaded oil at the Sidra oil export terminal in March 2014.
The AG’s Office is accusing ‘’armed groups’’ of using the oil tanker of to attempt to illegally export oil through the ‘’use of force’’ on behalf of Cyrenaica separatist Ibrahim Jadran. It says that only the National Oil Corporation (NOC) has the legal authority to export Libyan oil.
The tanker was subsequently forced to return to Libyan waters after it was captured by US forces at sea.
Three Libyans on board the oil tanker were initially arrested by the Attorney General’s Office, but were later controversially released.
In April 2014 the tanker was finally unloaded of its crude oil at Zawia oil terminal.
The AG’s Office says that the oil tanker will be put up for sale by auction this Thursday (10 September) due to the high cost of protecting and guarding it. It says that the procedes of its sale would be paid into the Court’s account. [/restrict]
