Sri Lanka court orders 84 Iranian sailors’ bodies be handed to Iran embassy, local media says
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Sri Lanka Navy personnel assist Iranian sailors during a rescue operation after responding to a distress call from their vessel, the Iranian military ship, IRIS Dena.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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COLOMBO – A Sri Lankan court has ordered that the bodies of 84 sailors killed in an attack on an Iranian warship off the island nation’s coast last week be handed over to the Embassy of Iran, local media reported on March 11.
The warship, IRIS Dena, was hit by a torpedo from a US submarine while it was returning from a naval exercise organised by India, amid the US-Israeli war on Iran that has wreaked havoc on global markets, sending oil prices soaring and disrupting trade and travel.
The court order was issued on March 11, following a request from the Galle Harbour Police in the southern port city of Galle, the media reports said.
The bodies are currently at the morgue in Galle’s National Hospital.
Sri Lanka has also granted 30-day entry visas to 208 crew members from a second Iranian vessel who were taken in by the South Asian country after the vessel experienced engine problems in the same region, Deputy Defence Minister Aruna Jayasekera told Reuters.
The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry is in touch with the Iranian Embassy in Colombo about the crew and the mission is in turn consulting Tehran, Mr Jayasekara said.
“We are expecting a response from Tehran over the next few days,” he added.
A spokesperson for Sri Lanka’s Cabinet on March 10 said the second vessel, IRIS Booshehr, was nine nautical miles from the coast and would eventually be moved.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake last week said the ship would be moved to the Trincomalee harbour on the east coast.
Reuters reported that Washington was pressing Colombo to not repatriate the survivors from the two Iranian vessels.
Thirty-two people survived the attack on IRIS Dena.
Both Washington and Tehran are key trade partners for Sri Lanka. The US accounts for about 40 per cent of its apparel exports, and Iran is one of its main tea buyers.
A third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan with 183 crew members, is docked in the southern Indian port of Kochi. REUTERS
