Posted in: 02/08/2022 – 15:30
Beirut (AFP) – The Discriminatory Public Prosecutor in Lebanon on Tuesday allowed the release of a ship loaded with grain and hoisting the Syrian flag, days after it was detained by the Lebanese security services, following Ukraine’s allegations that the wheat and flour shipment it was on was illegally loaded from areas in Ukraine that are under Russian control.
A judicial official told AFP that the discriminatory Public Prosecutor, Ghassan Oweidat, had allowed the ship “Ludisia”, which docked in the port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon last week, to sail after investigations failed to prove that it was carrying stolen flour and barley.
The judicial official, who requested anonymity, said that “the results of the preliminary investigations conducted since the ship’s arrival at the port of Tripoli, did not prove the existence of a criminal offense, or that the goods were stolen.”
The Ukrainian ambassador in Beirut, Ihor Ostach, announced Thursday that he had met with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, where they discussed “the issue of the illegal entry of a Syrian ship to the port of Tripoli, loaded with barley originating from the occupied Ukrainian lands.”
Kyiv accuses Russia of stealing its crops in the areas it occupied to use them for local consumption or resell them abroad.
On Tuesday, the judicial official indicated that “the Syrian person, in whose name the goods were shipped from Ukraine, attended the investigation and handed over papers and documents showing his ownership of the goods.”
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain producers, and the Russian invasion and Western sanctions on Moscow have hampered grain exports from both countries.
Under an international agreement signed with Russia in Istanbul, the first Ukrainian shipment of grain left the port of Odessa on Monday at 0617 GMT, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry.
“The Razzoni ship left the port of Odessa towards the port of Tripoli in Lebanon. It is expected to arrive in Istanbul on the second of August. It will continue on its way to its destination following inspections that will take place in Istanbul,” the ministry said.
The agreement between representatives of Russia and Ukraine as well as Turkey and the United Nations allows the export of Ukrainian grain under international supervision.
It would alleviate the global food crisis that led to a skyrocketing price hike in some of the world’s poorest countries due to the suspension of movement in Ukrainian ports as a result of the Russian invasion of the country.
And the “Marine Traffic” website, which specializes in tracking maritime navigation, showed that the Razzoni ship, carrying 26,000 tons of grain, crossed off the coast of Bulgaria at around nine GMT on Tuesday.
This comes at a time when Lebanon, mired in economic collapse, is witnessing a grain crisis, as the Lebanese wait in queues to get bags of subsidized bread. The Russian invasion of Ukraine worsened the situation, as Lebanon imports eighty percent of its needs from Ukraine.
© 2022 AFP