The captain of a Taiwanese fishing boat vowed to take legal action after he was allegedly attacked by a group believed to be comprised of his former employees.
Lee Chih-ming (李致銘), captain of the Taiwanese-flagged Tenn Ming Yang No. 368, was beaten by crew members from another vessel while his ship was moored in a port in Mauritius, videos by a witness showed.
Lee held a news conference on Thursday last week after returning to Taiwan to give his account of the incident.
Photo: Chen Yen-ting, Taipei Times
The incident took place on the evening of March 7 when several Indonesian “crew members of another ship” came to his ship to drink, said Lee, without elaborating.
The Indonesians were drinking and talking loudly, so he told them to keep their voices down, angering them, Lee said.
The Indonesians went to the captain’s cockpit, where they berated and hit him, Lee said.
There were five to eight assailants, Lee added.
In one of the videos, Lee knelt and apologized to his assailants, but the apology was made under duress out of fear of being subjected to more violence, Lee said.
Although officials at “the local Indonesian consulate” had tracked down three of his assailants, who later apologized to him, he would be bringing a lawsuit against all of his assailants to hold them accountable for their actions, Lee said.
He added that all his injuries sustained during the beating were documented at a hospital immediately after returning to Taiwan.
In a statement on Thursday, the Taiwan Tuna Longline Association condemned the perpetrators, saying they should have vented their frustration by filing complaints through appropriate channels rather than by resorting to violence, which was “unacceptable.”
A source from the crew of Tenn Ming Yang No. 368 gave a different account.
The so-called “crew members from another ship” were Lee’s former crew members who had asked to be transferred to other vessels because they could no longer stand Lee’s management style, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation in a call from Mauritius.
The source said that the former crew members went to Tenn Ming Yang No. 368 to “see their friends,” but when they saw Lee on board, they confronted him to ask why he had mistreated them.
Some of the Indonesians who confronted Lee had recently served out their contracts and were “going back [to Indonesia] soon,” the source said.
The source denied that the incident was triggered by Lee asking the former crew members to be quiet, saying “nothing like that happened.”
Lee hit several of his crew members on several occasions, is arrogant and often berates his staff for “small mistakes,” the source said.
Lee denied allegations of mistreatment when confronted by his former crew members on the night of March 7, the source said, adding that this angered them and led to the beating.
In a statement on Thursday, the Fisheries Agency said it would visit Mauritius to investigate the incident and interview crew members of Tenn Ming Yang No. 368.
Taiwan’s law enforcement agencies would handle any criminal offenses and it would offer the plaintiff judicial assistance through diplomatic channels, it added.
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