The Seaman Guard Ohio is a guard ship owned by the private security company AdvanFort . It hit the headlines after it was arrested by Indian forces in October 2013, which was followed by an as yet unsettled legal battle over its use.
The ship was built by the Narasaki shipyard in Muroran, Japan and delivered to Hokkaido Prefecture in 1984 as Kaio Maru . The Kaio Maru was used as a patrol boat until 2011 and then sold. In 2011 the ship was renamed the Timor Navigator and in 2012 it was renamed Seaman Guard Ohio . The US security service provider AdvanFort used the Seaman Guard Ohio, flying the Sierra Leone flag, as a floating base for armed security services on merchant ships.
Detention and litigation
On October 12, 2013, Seaman Guard Ohio was investigated by Indian security forces during a bunkering at sea. The original reason for the investigation by the Indian authorities related to the unauthorized bunkering of tax-privileged fuel in Indian territorial waters. When the ship was searched, the 35 weapons, 102 magazines and 5,682 rounds of ammunition carried for anti-pirate operations were found. As a result, the entire crew of the Seaman Guard Ohio was arrested and interrogated in the port of Tuticorin . Several petitions sought to get the men out on bail, but the Madras High Court ruled that they remained in custody. After no police charges had been pending 60 days after the men were arrested, bail was agreed on December 26, 2013. The bond was withdrawn by the Principal Sessions Court on January 7, 2014, with reference to a threat to national security. On March 26, 2014, another bail application was granted for 33 of the men and they were released on April 6, except for the captain and one other crew member.
In the next instance, the Madras High Court, the ten seamen and fifteen security guards were acquitted on July 10, 2014 of the charges made against them. However, Tamil Nadu police withheld their travel documents and appealed the acquittal to the Supreme Court in August 2014. He ordered the proceedings to be retried to the court in Tuticorin and gave six months' notice. The Tuticorin court found the group guilty of violating Indian gun law in January 2016 and sentenced everyone to five years in prison, citing the national threat to India. On 27 November 2017, all the accused were acquitted because the prosecution was unable to prove that the ship in Indian territorial waters applied had been.
