Issue of vessels leaving the country without fine payment rises

Attorney General's Office said today that the issue of foreign vessels have been fined for running aground in Maldivian waters and leaving without paying the fines have increased in the past three years.

Senior officials of the Attorney General's Office met with the Environment and Climate Change Committee of the Parliament today over the non-payment of environmental damage fines.

Counsel General Fathimath Haleem, Senior State Counsel Hawwa Sana and State Counsel Mariyam Shaany attended the meeting on behalf of the Attorney General's office.

Fathimath Haleem said EPA is proposing two main types of cases for prosecution in connection with environmental fines. which are;

- Failure to pay fines for possession of protected species

- Non-payment of fines for damage caused by grounded vessels

AG office said 13 cases have been filed for non-payment of fines for possession of protected species, out of which Civil Court ruled that one case does not have to pay fines.

Of these, 11 cases were referred back to Attorney General's office due to procedural issues.

There are eight cases pending in Attorney general's office for non-payment of fines imposed on vessels running aground, six of which are currently pending in court.

Two cases remain pending in court, one of which is the non-payment of a large fine for the damage caused due to a barge owned by Thilamale' bridge developer AFCONS. In the case, AFCONS refused to pay the fine, saying it was too high, and filed a civil suit against the state.

Legal Obstacles

Fathimath Haleem said AG's office has faced various challenges in recovering the fines in eight cases filed since 2022.

Of these cases, most of the vessels are of foreign origin and one of the biggest challenges is that they leave before facing prosecution, she said.

When filing a case with the court, the defendant and their address must be stated, she said, adding that once the vessels leaves the country, locating the ship and filing the case will lead to more challenges.

“When we are filing the complaint, we don’t know where the vessel is, we are not sure which address to send it to,” she said.

According to Attorney General's Office, Maldivian vessels cooperate well in fine payments. However, foreign vessels refuse to pay the dues in various ways.

Fathimath Haleem said that the vessels enter Maldives through a local agent but when some cases are filed in court defendants claim that the agent has changed. As a result, the case is not resolved, prolonging the matter, she said.

She said although the agent refused to take responsibility, the agents are now also being prosecuted.

“There are again obstacles to enforcing a court judgment,” she said.

She said the biggest challenge in enforcing the sentence is that the law does not allow the vessel which has fines levied against it to be detained in Maldives. She said the law does not give the state the power to detain the vessel if the fine is not paid.

Maldives currently applies a regulation formulated under the 1993 Act enacted 31 years ago.

According to Fathimath, Attorney General's office is working with the relevant authorities to find a permanent solution to the issue.