Tripoli, 10 October:
Fourteen Italian fisherman arrested off the Benghazi coast on Sunday have been released on bail awaiting trial.
The men have . . .[restrict]been accused of illegal fishing in the Fisheries Protection Zone, disputed waters over which Libya claims exclusive fishing rights.
“They have been released from jail and are back with their boats”, said Guido de Sanctis, the Italian consul in Benghazi.
“Judicial proceedings regarding the alleged crime are still on-going and they will now have to stand trial. I cannot tell you exactly when that will take place”.
In June, 19 Italian fishermen who were also arrested in the FPZ were held for more than a month. The FPZ, which was imposed by the Qaddafi regime in 2005, extends 62 nautical miles from the coast and is not recognised by either Italy or the wider European Union.
Under the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea, each country has exclusive rights over territorial waters extending 12 nautical miles from the coast. Countries may also claim rights over an Exclusive Economic Zone, extending to a distance of 200 nautical miles.
In the Mediterranean, however, states have generally desisted from proclaiming an EEZ owing to inevitable conflicts that would arise from competing claims over such a large space from the 21 nations bordering the sea. [/restrict]
