Greek Captain Not Guilty for Prestige Sinking

The sinking off the country's northwestern coast coated thousands of kilometres of coastline, mainly in Spain, with foul-smelling black fuel, forcing the closure of its richest fishing grounds.

After an 11-year judicial investigation the Galician region's high court said in a verdict and sentence that the disaster was partly due to the 26-year-old tanker's poor state of repair.

After a storm damaged one of its fuel tanks, the ship had spent days drifting at sea with 77,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil on board, having been refused permission to dock by Spanish, Portuguese and French authorities.

It eventually split into two and sank around 250 miles off the coast, continuing to spurt oil into the water from the sea bed.

The Greek captain was accused of disobeying government authorities who wanted the 26-year-old tanker as far from the coast as possible and has been given a nine month suspended sentence.

Judges said the leak was caused by deficient maintenance which the crew did not know about.