Convicted vessel captain repatriated from Panama

A merchant ship captain was granted bail at the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday after returning earlier in the day from Panama, where he had been imprisoned for the last five years after being accused and convicted of murder.

Duanmu Wei-kai (端木惟鍇), who was repatriated by Panama on Wednesday, was free to return to his home in Taichung City after his family members paid NT$100,000 (US$3,289) in bail.

As he left the prosecutors office, the 72-year-old former captain declared his innocence and said he would accept the results of a court trial in Taiwan.

Duanmu, a veteran of the Republic of China navy, was the captain of the Panama-registered H.V. Well Pescadores bulk carrier, owned by Taipei-based Shih Wei Navigation Co, when it was sailing from the Dominican Republic to Houston, Texas, in March 2003.

As the ship prepared to enter Houston’s harbor, several crewmen discovered five Dominican stowaways hiding in the boat. The stowaways were sent off the ship and left to fend for themselves at sea on two flat wooden rafts.

Two the stowaways, however, were later found drowned, while three others were arrested.

The captain, the first officer and 11 crewmen were detained by US authorities, but because the crime took place on the high seas aboard a Panamanian ship, they were extradited to Panama for trial.

Duanmu always insisted that he was not aware of the incident until after the fact. At the trial and in communications with his family, the captain said the crewmen told him the stowaways had asked to be set free.

The stowaways testified that they were thrown off the ship.

The Panamanian court favored the stowaways testimony, convicting Duanmu of murder and sentencing him to 19-and-a-half years in prison in September 2005.

Since then, Taiwan’s foreign ministry has worked to have the elderly captain repatriated back to Taiwan for trial, a request the Panamanian government finally agreed to on Wednesday.