路透社Tue Jan 26, 2016 1:57pm GMT 新聞

路透社Tue Jan 26, 2016 1:57pm GMT 新聞

西班牙法庭宣判, 在2002年造成環境巨災的”Prestige”船長被判刑兩年. 主因乃是至少超載2000噸的貨油, 超過船體所能負載, 是否能夠再上訴獲取較有利的判決, 需再作觀察.

Spain's Supreme Court sentenced the captain of the Prestige oil tanker, which sank off Spain's northwestern coast in 2002, covering thousands of kilometres of coastline in fuel oil, to two years in prison on Tuesday.

The captain, Apostolos Mangouras, was convicted of recklessness resulting in catastrophic environmental damage, according to a statement by the court, overturning a previous sentence which cleared him of criminal responsibility.

The sinking of the Greek tanker, which was sailing to Gibraltar, released an estimated 63,000 tones of foul-smelling black fuel along the Galicia coast and forced the closure of the country's richest fishing grounds.

In Tuesday's ruling, Mangouras was accused of guiding the tanker in treacherous conditions with full knowledge of its weakened structure while the ship was overloaded by at least 2,000 tonnes of fuel oil.

(Reporting by Paul Day, Editing by Julien Toyer and Angus MacSwan)