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World News

Christian charity hopes Gibraltar court ruling could see release of seafarers'

The Grace 1 supertanker, which is carrying 2.1m barrels of oil, was detained on 4th  July on suspicion of illegally transporting oil to Syria.

A last-minute legal attempt by the US to keep the tanker detained was rejected by Gibraltar on Thursday.

Iran previously called the detention of Grace 1 an "illegal interception".

Christian seafarers' charity, Stella Maris hopes the decision by a judge in Gibraltar yesterday to release the supertanker Grace 1 may lead to the release of the Stena Impero crew, detained in Iran for 27 days.

Whilst Iran has claimed the detention of the Grace 1 was not connected to the seizure of the Stena Impero, this has been widely questioned. 

A spokesperson for Stella Maris said: "We have been concerned that the crew of the Stena Impero, who had been going about their professional duties, have been detained against their will with little evidence against them."

"Shipping and seafaring is a tight knit community and the worry of these events are an added anxiety for seafarers and something that Stella Maris port chaplains have been hearing."

Two weeks after Grace 1 was detained, on 19th July, Iran seized the British flagged tanker Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz.

Although Iran claimed the ship had violated "international maritime rules", the seizure of Stena Impero was widely believed to be an act of retaliation.

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