2 Myanmar men get prison in deadly sea accident

The captain and the second officer of a Singaporean container ship were sentenced to prison for an accident that left four people dead and three others missing in Zhejiang province, authority said.

Htay Win, the captain, got a four-year sentence, and Thein Nating Oo, the second officer of the container ship Kota Nebula, got three years for maritime traffic accident crimes, according to a verdict from the Zhoushan Immediate People’s Court in Zhejiang province on May 7. Both men are from Myanmar.

The case is the first of its kind involving foreigners among maritime traffic accidents criminal cases, the local newspaper Qianjiang Evening News reported.

On April 2, the Kota Nebula collided with a fishing boat in waters off southeastern Zhoushan on the way from Shanghai to Ningbo city.

After the accident, Htay Win did not report the case to local government departments and did not conduct rescue operations for the seven fishermen, authority said.