Finnish-Syrian Sailor Jailed 30 Years in Turkey on Drug Smuggling Charges
Ali Albokhari was sentenced to 30 years after cocaine was found aboard his cargo ship. His wife says there is no evidence against him.
A Finnish-Syrian merchant sailor is serving a 30-year Turkish prison sentence after cocaine was discovered aboard the cargo vessel where he served as chief mate, despite what his family describes as a complete absence of evidence linking him to the drugs.
Ali Albokhari, 42, was working as chief mate aboard the Phoenician M, a 180-metre bulk carrier, when Colombian naval officers from the Armada Nacional boarded the ship at the port of Barranquilla in September 2023. The search turned up 137 kilograms of cocaine stuffed into holdalls. Markings on the packages — bearing the crest of Turkish football club Kayserispor — appeared to identify Turkey as the shipment's intended destination, matching the vessel's next scheduled port of call.
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Albokhari alerted his wife, Elena, by phone from Colombia, telling her the crew was in serious trouble and that he no longer wanted to work at sea. Weeks later, after the Phoenician M docked at Ereğli on Turkey's Black Sea coast in early October 2023, Turkish authorities detained him. He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to three decades in prison.
Elena Albokhari, based in Helsinki, has been campaigning for her husband's release, arguing that the evidence used to convict him does not establish personal involvement in any smuggling operation. The case has drawn attention to the vulnerability of commercial seafarers — who often have little control over what cargo or contraband may be loaded aboard their vessels — to prosecution in foreign jurisdictions where due-process standards can differ sharply from those in their home countries.
The Phoenician M case illustrates a recurring dilemma in international maritime law: when contraband is found on a commercial ship, establishing individual culpability among a crew of 20 can be difficult, yet crewmembers are sometimes held collectively responsible. Continue reading at Business | The Guardian.
