Valery Yarantsev, captain of a Russian fishing vessel was convicted of poaching in 2007 in the NOrwegina economic area near the Spitsbergen Archipelago. Now Yarantsev has taken his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. In his appeal he said that he categorically disagree with his guilty verdict. He added that he had already been through all the courts in Russia and after receiving a denial from the Supreme Court then he decided to appeal the sentence in the European Court of Human Rights.
It was in October 2005 when the Norwegian Coast Guard service pursued the Elektron trawler across the Barents Sea for five days. The vessel refused to follow Norwegian orders to go to a port to be checked for alleged fishing violations, fleeing Russian waters with two Norwegian inspectors onboard. It is said that the captain was pleaded not guilty and was fined 100,000 rubles ($3,900 at the time) for poaching. He was also barred from captaining a fishing vessel for two years. He was acquitted of illegally holding people onboard the ship.
Yarantsev told that now he want to demand that the court decision be overturned. He also pointed that he has filed a lawsuit for 2.5 million ruble ($77,000) compensation in moral damages.
