SEOUL, Jan 16: South Korea’s top court said on Friday it has granted bail to the Indian captain and chief officer of a Hong Kong supertanker who were jailed last month over the country’s worst oil spill.

Captain Jasprit Chawla and chief officer Syam Chetan were released on Thursday pending the hearing of their appeal to the Supreme Court, court spokesman Kim Jin-Wan said.

An appeal court, reversing a lower court decision, had last month found the pair partly to blame for the spill. It jailed Chawla for 18 months in prison and Chetan for eight months.

The ruling sparked widespread anger in the international shipping community, which insisted the tanker crew were blameless. Indian seafarer unions have staged protests.

The accident happened when a barge carrying a construction crane broke free after a cable to one of two tugs snapped in rough seas in December 2007.—AFP