Express Feeders, the shipping company linked to the X-Press Pearl vessel, has rejected a Supreme Court order requiring the payment of USD 1 billion in compensation for the environmental and economic damages caused by the 2021 maritime disaster.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Shmuel Yoskovitz, told international media that such a payment would have wide-reaching implications for the global shipping industry and could set a dangerous precedent.
On July 24 this year, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court directed the company to pay the compensation amount to the Treasury Secretary.
In addition, the court ruled that former minister Nalaka Godahewa and the Marine Pollution Prevention Authority had violated fundamental rights by failing to take adequate measures to prevent the disaster.
The judgment was delivered by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by then Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, in response to a series of fundamental rights petitions filed by various parties, including His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, over the catastrophic incident.
The X-Press Pearl fire and sinking off the coast of Colombo in 2021 is widely regarded as Sri Lanka’s worst-ever maritime environmental disaster.
