Tehran (AFP)
The Stena Impero, a Swedish oil tanker flying the British flag seized by Tehran in July, has left its anchorage in front of the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas (south), the specialist site TankerTrackers reported on Tuesday.
On Monday, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said the ship, boarded on July 19 by the Revolutionary Guards, was now "free from its movements", without specifying when it would resume the sea.
"This morning, the satellite images (...) reveal that the Stena Impero is no longer anchored at this location (27'07 N, 56'25 E)," says the Twitter account of TankerTrackers, website monitoring movements tankers on the planet.
The ship was anchored "there since the second week of August", adds TankerTrackers, satellite photos in support.
183 meters long, the Stena Impero had been boarded with a crew of 23 people on board, of which seven had been released on 4 September.
The Iranian authorities accused the ship of ignoring distress calls and turning off her transponder after colliding with a fishing boat. They had announced that they had initiated legal proceedings accordingly.
The seizure of the ship had taken place a few hours after a Gibraltar court announced the extension of the seizure of the Iranian tanker Grace 1 by the police and customs of this British territory in the extreme south of Spain.
Iran denied that the arrest of Stena Impero was a reprisal for the seizure of Grace 1.
Renamed Adrian Darya 1, the latter left Gibraltar on August 18 after a court decision authorizing his release, despite a last-minute request from the United States to extend his detention.
© 2019 AFP