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Iran demands $170m from owner of seized Israel-linked ship
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) intercepted the MSC Aries in April of 2024 and detained its 25 international crew members.
The MSC Aries, owned by Zodiac Maritime, a company linked to Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer, was flying the Portuguese flag at the time of its capture.
Iranian judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said charges had been filed and the case was before the courts, though no date had been set for a trial.
“A fine of $170 million has been demanded against its owner, of Israeli origin, accused of financing terrorism,” Jahangir said, according to ISNA.
At least some of the crew were later freed.
Jahangir said the ship, excluding its cargo, was valued at $170 million and said that Ofer – an Israeli billionaire and shipping magnate – was an “influential figure” within the Israeli regime.
The seizure of the ship came amid the Islamic Republic’s pledges of retaliation against the regime’s deadly aggression against the Iranian soil, including its July 2024 assassination of the former Political Bureau chief of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, and Tel Aviv’s atrocities against other regional territories.