Poachers lose bid to go home

2003-10-31 14:11

Perth, Australia - An appeal to allow five alleged Patagonian toothfish poachers to return home pending their trial was turned down by a magistrate in the Western Australian capital on Friday.

The skipper and four crew members of the Viarsa 1, captured following the longest maritime chase in Australian history earlier this year, applied to have bail conditions altered to allow them to leave the country.

But Magistrate Barbara Lane refused the application from defence solicitor Philip Laskaris, saying no new information had been presented after their first bail application on October 10.

She said she was concerned that, no matter how many assurances were made or bail conditions attached, they might not return to face trial.

"There have been many publicised and well known cases of people going to Spain and not coming back," Lane said in Perth Magistrate's Court.

The Viarsa captain, 58-year-old Uruguayan Ricardo Mario Ribot Cabrera, faces four charges under Australian fisheries laws. Spaniard Antonio Garcia Perez, 40, also faces four charges.

Facing two charges each are Jose Gonzalez Perez, 38, and Francisco Fernandez Olivera, 44, both from Spain, and Chilean Roberto Enrique Reyes Guerrero, 34.

Patagonian toothfish

All the charges relate to the illegal fishing of the highly-prized Patagonian toothfish.

The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) will allege Reyes Guerrero was also a crew member of the Togo-registered South Tomi, which was apprehended after a similar, two-week chase in May 2001.

Laskaris said the five men's wages had been stopped by their employers, Uruguayan firm Navalmar which chartered the vessel, and their families would be subjected to unreasonable hardship if they were not allowed home to work.

But prosecutor Mark Fletcher told the court the men were entitled to Australian government payments while here awaiting trial.

The five were charged with fishing offences a week after the vessel was escorted into Fremantle October 3.

The pursuit of the Viarsa, across 6 300km over some of the roughest seas in the world, began on August 7 after suspicions arose that the boat had been illegally fishing for the endangered Patagonian toothfish in Australian waters.

The vessel was first spotted near Heard Island, in the Southern Ocean, prompting the Australian fisheries vessel, Southern Supporter, to launch the chase through 10m waves, 80 knot winds, ice and freezing temperatures.

- AFP