Iran retakes oil tanker after five years
An Iranian oil tanker, which was seized by a foreign company five years ago, has been returned to the country in an operation by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
An Iranian judicial official ordered the return of the oil tanker, and the IRGC along with the Ministry of Intelligence carried out an operation to implement the judicial order, said Mojtaba Qahremani, an official of the judiciary of Hormuzgan Province, IRNA reported.
The Iranian security forces have recently discovered the presence of the 10,000-ton Purity oil tanker in the Persian Gulf. So, they retook the vessel and relocated it to the Assaluyeh port in southern Iran, Qahramani said.
The Purity was illegally rented to a foreign individual with forfeited documents about five years ago, and its Iranian owners were deprived of their interests, he added.
Through investigations made by security organizations, it became clear that the foreign company used the vessel for fuel trafficking. Consequently, on February 7, 2022, the prosecutor of the city of Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran, ordered the tanker to be confiscated. The vessel is now at Asaluyeh Port to be unloaded.