The five crew of a Maltese-managed coastal tanker remain in custody in Tripoli, three weeks after they were detained on suspicion of fuel smuggling, The Libya Herald repirts.

The men were arrested when their vessel , the 5- metre tanker, the Sun Oil was towed to Tripoli by an unnamed Italian freighter which had reportedly found the tanker drifting without power in Libyan waters.

The detention of the Moldovan-flag, tanker was only made public on Saturday when the Bulgarian Foreign ministry requested clarification of the fate of two of its citizens among the crew. It then emerged that the Sun Oil had been towed in to Tripoli harbour of 2 January.

The vessel was reportedly loaded with petrol. The smuggling of highly-subsidised Libyan fuel to neighbouring states, including Malta, has long been a major source of income to some militias and criminal gangs, the newspaper reported.

 

Diplomats from Italy and Hungary, which with the Ukraine are the only European countries to still have embassies in Tripoli, have visited the two Bulgarians and reported them in good health.  The Bulgarian government has been pushing for a swift conclusion to the investigation by the Customs service.