Tribunal tells Ghana to release Argentinian ship

An international tribunal in Hamburg on Saturday called on Ghana to immediately release the Argentinian frigate Libertad, which it has held for more than two months in a debt dispute. The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea "asks the Ghana authorities to immediately free the Libertad frigate and arrange for her to leave Tema" (east of Accra), tribunal head Shunji Yanai said. Ghana's Deputy Attorney General Ebo Barton-Odro declined to comment until he had received a full report from the government's representatives at the tribunal. "After we have received an official decision and when we have received and discussed it then I will be in a position to talk," he said. He had no immediate comment on whether Accra intended to honour the court's request to release the ship. The three-masted Libertad has been held in the Ghanaian port since October 2 under a Ghanaian court order requested by NML Capital, a Cayman Islands investment firm that says Argentina owes it $370 million. Argentina rescheduled and refinanced much of its debt following an economic crisis and massive default a decade ago, but bonds held by speculative funds such as NML are among its unsettled business. The government of President Cristina Kirchner contends that Ghana "violated the norms of international law that confer immunity on ships of war". The Argentine navy uses the Libertad as a training ship. The captain and a 44-member skeleton crew remain aboard the ship, while 280 other crew members returned to Argentina in late October. On Saturday Yanai read out the decision of 20 judges who attended the hearings of November 29-30. Ghana asked that Argentina's complaint be dismissed and Buenos Aires condemned to pay the cost of the procedure, arguing that the court was not competent. According to Accra, the crew was not at risk and the inconvenience for Argentina was minor. "Ghana asks that the Argentinian demand be rejected (...) It would not be the first time that your tribunal dismisses preventative measures," said Ebenezer Appreku, legal advisor in the Ghanaian foreign ministry. Ghana argues that the tribunal is not competent as the matter is a private trade dispute.