A US judge plans to allow three of six Chinese crew members who have been held in the US since their ship spilled 53,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay to return home in the next few weeks.

The captain and two other crew members who were on the bridge when the Cosco Busan struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Nov. 7 will have to remain technically under arrest another several weeks.

All six had been detained as "material witnesses" to the accident and the criminal case against the ship's American pilot, John Cota, who is charged with two misdemeanor environmental crimes and two felony charges of lying to the US Coast Guard about his medical record.

US Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero said on Monday he was inclined to allow crew members to return to China, instead letting prosecutors and Cota's attorney question them before the trial and show jurors the videotaped exchanges.

The six Chinese nationals have been staying in a San Francisco apartment and receiving their pay and daily food stipends since the ship's owners agreed to put up the men through May 31 as a condition for letting the container ship leave the US once it was repaired.

Agencies

(China Daily 05/07/2008 page10)