MOSCOW, September 24 (RAPSI) – Japanese authorities have arrested the captain of a Russian vessel flying the Togolese flag on suspicion of illegal crab fishing, Kyodo News announced on Wednesday.

According to the coast guard in Wakkanai, a city in Hokkaido, Anatoly Romazanov, 43, was arrested on Tuesday night. His vessel, with a displacement of 91 metric tons and crab fishing nets, was seized in Japan’s exclusive economic zone 57 kilometers east of Cape Soya.

The Russian national has pleaded not guilty.