REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KUPANG -- Two suspects in the case of illegal fishing by a Chinese fishing ship in eastern Indonesian waters have been sentenced to a fine, head of fisheries and marine resource surveillance station in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, Mubarak, said. He explained the fine was a court decision made by the judge in the district court of Kupang following a session on Thursday.

He said Weng Zhi Yi and Li Zhaofeng were each fined Rp100 million. He said they were not imprisoned as has been demanded by the prosecutor because they were not caught violating Article 129 of the Fisheries Law and UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).

The evidence in the form of a 598 GT ship has been confiscated by the state. "It was not destroyed because it still has economic benefit," Mubarak said.

He said the two defenfants had accepted the sentence while the prosecutor still had yet to decide if they would accept it.

The case emerged after their ship was caught fishing illegally in Indonesia's exclusive economic zone bordering Timor Leste at the end of November 2017.

The fisheries and marine resources surveillane station in Kupang arrested 21 crew members along with their ship and fish catch weighing around 30 tons that have now been auctioned off.

Two of the crew who were the skipper and chief engineer were named suspects and had been judicially processed. The rest of the crew had been sent back to their regions of origin.

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