Chinese crew pleads guilty to throwing Tanzanians overboard

Appearing in court at Durban today, seven Chinese nationals plead guilty to the attempted murder of two Tanzanian nationals who were thrown overboard while at sea last month.

According to National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson, Natasha Kara, the seven men were ordered to pay hefty fines, or face years in prison.

The ship’s captain, Cui Rongli, had further plead guilty to the contravention of several provisions in the Merchant Shipping Act – these relate to misconduct and failure to report stowaways.

“These men form part of the crew of a shipping vessel, Top Grace, which arrived from Singapore to the Port of Durban early last month.

“In their plea, they said their vessel left Durban on March 26. The following day they discovered two Tanzanian men on board. Realising that the men were stowaways, they asked them to identify themselves,” said Kara.

In their plea, the crew stated that they had asked the stowaways to wear face masks in light of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic however, they refused.

The two Tanzanian men were then separated and confined to different rooms – owing to the crew being unsure of their health status – aboard the vessel.

They were given water and food and later demanded to know the destination of the vessel.

The accused, Lin Xinyong, Zou Yongxian, Tan Yian, Xie Wenbin, Xu Kun and Mu Yong (the captain not being involved) constructed a raft with plastic drums and plywood and gave the men life jackets and water, told them to leave the ship.

“The crew acted in a threatening manner by banging on the vessel’s deck and the men descended into the raft. The ship pulled away once they were on the raft,” said Kara.

“The two men washed ashore at Zinkwazi Beach near KwaDukuza and the crew of the vessel was asked to go to the Port of Richards Bay.”

“The accused admitted that their actions could have resulted in serious injury and even loss of life.”

The two attempted murder charges were taken as one for sentencing and Rongli received a fine of R100 000 or four years’ imprisonment.

For failing to report the stowaways, he was sentenced to a fine of R10 000 or three months’ imprisonment, suspended for five years on condition that he is not convicted of the same offence during the period of suspension.

He was sentenced to a fine of R50 000 or 12 months’ imprisonment for misconduct. This sentence was suspended for five years on condition that he is not convicted of the same offence during the period of suspension.

Each of the other accused were sentenced to a fine of R50 000 or two years’ imprisonment for attempted murder.

They were handed over to immigration officials after paying their fines.

The case was handled by acting regional court prosecutor, Vishalan Moodley.

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