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“Lebanese officials have asked us to find a person and ask him some questions. That is what we did, a Cypriot police spokesman told AFP.” His answers have been transmitted to Lebanon.
A police spokesman said Igor Gruchushkin had not been arrested, but had been asked to answer certain questions about the ship’s cargo, which had been asked by the Lebanese branch of Interpol.
“We did what they asked us to do,” the official said.
Earlier on Thursday, the Cypriot Interior Ministry denied media reports that Gracushkin also had a Cypriot passport, but added that he would offer assistance to Lebanon.
The Cypriot daily Politis reported that Gracushkin lives in the southern port city of Limassol, one of the world’s largest ship management centers.
In 2013, the Rhosus shipped approximately 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate to Lebanon. The ship arrived from Batumi Sakartvele and was planning to sail to Mozambique, a Lebanese security source told AFP, wishing to remain anonymous because it did not have the authority to speak publicly about it.
Gracushkin chartered a boat moored in Beirut harbor with a small hole in the hull, The New York Times and other outlets reported.
The Marine Monitoring Marine Traffic website reported that a Moldovan-flagged ship had arrived at the port of Beirut on November 20, 2013 and had not set sail.
Lebanese law firm Baroudi & Associates, which represented the ship’s crew, announced that Rhosus had arrived in Beirut from Batumi in November 2013.
The ship was carrying “2,750 metric tons of high-density ammonium nitrate”; “He had to send a shipment from the port of Beirut to Jordan,” the law firm said in a statement received by AFP.
“However, due to various technical deficiencies and non-compliance with safe shipping requirements, Beirut port officials did not allow the ship to load and sail,” the statement read.
It adds that the shipowner and charterers left four crew members to chance.
The crew members asked Baroudi & Associates to represent them and help them return home.
“Explosion hazard”
The law firm said it had warned Lebanese officials of the danger of a potentially explosive charge.
“We warned of the danger of the explosion and the damage it would cause, citing the 1947 Texas port explosion caused by ammonium nitrate,” added Baroudi & Associates.
The law firm indicated that in September 2014, the crew was repatriated following a relevant court decision.
However, a court in Beirut dismissed the law firm’s claim for the unpaid wages of the crew members, arguing that it “has no jurisdiction to deal with the matter,” Baroudi & Associates said.
Several security officials told AFP Beirut that Lebanese officials seized Rhosus after a Lebanese company sued the shipowner.
The port administration unloaded the cargo of ammonium nitrate and stored it in an abandoned port warehouse, and then the ship sank where it was moored.
Eventually, an unusual smell began to spread from the warehouse, prompting security forces to carry out an investigation in 2019, after which it was decided that the “hazardous” chemicals should be removed.
The warehouse walls were unstable, with visible cracks, and the port authority was urged to repair it.
Workers were dispatched and made repairs this week alone. It has been speculated that this may also have caused an explosion.
Tuesday’s explosion killed at least 137 people, injured thousands and caused billions of dollars in damage.
The explosion was even felt in the Cypriot capital, Nicosia, 240 km from Beirut.
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