Croatia ‘shocked’ by conviction of sailor for drug smuggling

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Croatia expressed its dismay on Monday at the 30-year prison sentence imposed by a Turkish court on one of its citizens after he was found guilty of drug smuggling.

Captain Marko Bekavac was found guilty for his role in smuggling nearly 140 kilograms of cocaine aboard his cargo ship into a Turkish port last year, Croatian media reported.

The drugs were found last October in the Turkish Black Sea port of Eregli on board the ship, which arrived from Colombia under the Panamanian flag. Bekavac has been in a prison in Ankara since then.

Bekavac was tried on these charges in June along with nine other people.

A court in the Turkish city of Zonguldak acquitted eight of the defendants on Monday, but sentenced Bekavac and the ship's first officer to 30 years in prison each, Croatian state news agency HINA reported.

Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman told reporters in Zagreb on Monday that “we are shocked and surprised by this verdict,” adding that Zagreb would continue to lobby Ankara on Bekavac's behalf.

In June, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and said Zagreb expected Ankara to “deal fairly in its case.”

The Croatian ambassador to Turkey said Bekavac would appeal the verdict and Plenkovic expressed hope on Monday that the appeals court would reach a “different verdict”.

According to the Turkish daily newspaper “Hürriyet”, some crew members accused the captain of not taking sufficient measures to secure the ship to prevent drugs from being secretly loaded onto the ship in Colombia.

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