Sirichai Fisheries embroiled in new legal battle

Senator Khun Wicharn Sirichai, the Managing Director of Sirichai Fisheries, Thailand, has exclusively released documentation of a legal case in which Indonesian authorities have accused a Thai-flagged trawler of illegal fishing in the Indonesian Exclusive Economic Zone to BairdMaritime.com.

Sirichai Fisheries was also the owner of the ‘Ekawatnava 5’, a vessel which was sunk in November 2008 in a dramatic explosion caused by the Indian Navy on the false presumption of it being a Somali pirate mother ship. According to documents released, the Thai-flagged trawler ‘Or. Sirichainava 18’ left Somali waters on February 2, 2009, and headed back to the Port of Samutsakhon Province, Thailand.By February 20, the vessel had arrived at the mouth of the Malacca Strait, and was, according to Sirichai, within the vessel’s rights to freedom of navigation, as stated by UNCLOS 1982.

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