Stormy waters: Iran captures Royal Navy crew

The Royal Navy crew had been carrying out a routine search on a cargo ship.

Iranian officials claimed the sailors were trespassing in Iranian waters, but the UK insisted they were in Iraqi waters.

Footage of the sailors apparently admitting to trespass and apologising to the Iranian people was aired by Iranian state TV.

Meanwhile protests took place in Iran by hardliners angry at what they say was “illegal entry” into Iranian waters. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the UK attitude as “arrogant”.

Then in an exclusive interview with Channel 4 News on 2 April, head of Iran’s security council Ali Larijani stressed that Iran was keen to resolve the crisis through diplomatic channels.

Speaking through a translator, Mr Larijani told Jon Snow: “Indeed we are not pleased to have some British citizens to be in our country as captives.

“Maybe if the UK government would have acted otherwise we would have not had the case gone on for so long, unsettled.

“As soon as this incident happened, a harsh diplomatic atmosphere was created and… political tools came into use.

“The meaning was our sovereignty was violated, our territorial waters were violated… that was not the appropriate move or attitude.

“Some EU members also started taking position – and it was interesting for me that and prior to knowing whether they [the Navy crew] were in our waters or not, apparently they were amongst the people who could see the unseen – and started to condemn Iran.”

“In our view they have been in our waters 100 per cent. I would ask you this question – if a military force would violat your borders, your territorial waters, would you give them chocolate in return?”

But after further negotiations, on 5 April the 15 sailors were released – but not before being presented with “goodie-bags” containing not chocolate but “toffees containing pistachio nuts” and CDs and DVDs about Iran.

They were flown home with President Ahmadinejad describing their departure as a “gift” to the UK.At a news conference back in Britain, the group’s leader Lieutenant Felix Carman said that they had categorically not strayed into Iranian territory.

“When we were detained by the IRG (Iranian Revolutionary Guard) we were inside internationally-recognised Iraqi territorial waters and I can clearly state we were 1.7 nautical miles from Iranian waters.”

Captain Chris Air, of the Royal Marines, added: “They rammed our boats and trained their heavy machine guns, RPG and weapons on us.

“Another six boats were closing in on us, we realised our efforts to reason with these people were not making any headway.

“It was at this point that we realised that had we resisted there would have been a major fight – one which we could not have won.”

Lt Carman also described the “psychological pressure” they were then subjected to.

“When we first went to the prison, we were put up against a wall, hands bound, blindfolded, people were cocking weapons in the background.” Lt Felix Carman

He said: “When we first went to the prison, we were put up against a wall, hands bound, blindfolded, people were cocking weapons in the background – which was extremely nerve-racking…”

It was at this point the sailors and marines say they were forced to make televised confessions and the female crew member, Fay Turney, was picked out.

Cpt Chris Air continued: “She was separated from us as soon as we arrived in Tehran at the detention centre and isolated in a cell well away from us.

“She was told shortly afterwards that we’d all been returned home and was under the impression fior about four days that she was the only one there.”

Newspaper row

Some of the sailors subsequently sold their stories to newspapers and television programmes. The Royal Navy’s decision to allow them to do so caused a public outcry. The Ministry of Defence then banned the sailors from speaking to the media.

Defence Secretary Des Browne took responsibility for the debacle, saying “The buck stops here.”

In 2004, eight British servicemen were accused of spying. They were released only after tense diplomatic exchanges.

Civilian yacht crew captured
When five civilan sailors steered their yacht into Iranian waters at the end of 2009, another political storm threatened to blow up. 

The five-man crew were sailing their yacht from Bahrain to a race in Dubai when they were captured by the Iranian navy. They were detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The Foreign Office said the yacht might have strayed "inadvertently" into Iranian waters and insisted the detention of the five men had nothing to do with politics or Iran's controversial nuclear programme.

Channel 4 News Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Rugman said that it was not for UK politicians to say whether the matter was political or not. 

"It is for the Iranians now to decide whether to make it part of politics or not," he said.

"It seems pretty clear that these yachtsmen were in Iranian territorial waters. 

"You are allowed to go in to territorial waters if you can demonstrate that you have a right of innocent passage; that you're on your way to somewhere else. 

"What these yachtsmen were supposed to be doing was joining a race from Dubai to Muscat and they should not have been in Iranian territorial waters. It should not have happened. It was a mistake."

A week later on 2 December 2009 Oliver Smith, Oliver Young, Sam Usher, Luke Porter and David Bloomer were returned to international waters and towed back to Dubai.