An oil tanker that Libyan protesters had claimed was carrying fuel bound for the embattled North African regime has been allowed to leave Malta after a court expert established it was empty.

The protesters’ lawyer, Louise Ann Pulis, filed a request for an urgent injunction late on Thursday to stop the Turkish-flagged Mubariz Ibrahimov from leaving. Her clients had been alerted to the vessel by the temporary Libyan authority in Benghazi.

The request cited the sanctions against the Gaddafi government and humanitarian violations committed in the country.

The Attorney General asked the court to appoint an expert to determine if the ship was in fact carrying any fuel.

Madam Justice Abigail Lofaro appointed surveyor Aldo Abela to draw up an inventory and carry out an inspection of the vessel and he ascertained it was empty.

The judge said the requirements for the granting of the warrant had, therefore, not been satisfied and turned down the Libyans’ request for the boat to be barred from leaving.

On Thursday evening, Police Inspector Priscilla Caruana said the tanker, which belongs to the Palmali Group, had departed from Russia and was probably scheduled to head back empty to the Black Sea.

However, the protesters insisted they saw the vessel being refuelled and one of them, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he even had footage of it.

The London-based Libyan Youth Movement echoed claims by the protesters that Yahia Ibrahim Gaddafi, senior official of a Libyan state-owned oil company, was in Malta seeking $5 million worth of fuel to be shipped to Libya.

The tanker is expected to leave Malta today.

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