On Tuesday, the Chinese captain and a crew member were arrested, but they have now been allowed to return to the ship, according to a source for the news agency AFP. The suspicions are directed against the Benin-flagged oil tanker Boracay, which, according to reports, has been used when several drone flights last week forced Danish airports to close.
The captain is to appear in court in February for not following the order of the French navy.
The ship began its continued journey on Thursday evening and left the French coast on Friday morning. According to the ship traffic service, the tanker is headed for the Suez Canal in Egypt.
The French authorities boarded the tanker on Saturday and then arrested the captain and the crew member. The tanker is suspected of belonging to the Russian shadow fleet, which consists of old oil tankers and is used to circumvent Western sanctions against Russia. It left the Russian Primorsk on September 20 with the Indian coastal city of Vadinar as the official destination to reach on October 20.
