A French court is to try the Chinese captain of a tanker from Russia's "shadow fleet" early next year after it was intercepted off France, prosecutors said Thursday, in a move seen as a message to Moscow over its efforts to skirt Western oil sanctions.

The French navy on Saturday stopped the Boracay, a vessel claiming to be flagged in Benin and blacklisted by the European Union for being part of Russia's sanction-busting "shadow fleet" of ageing oil tankers, according to the public prosecutor's office in the northwestern city of Brest.

The vessel was investigated over inconsistencies in where the tanker was officially registered while it was carrying a "large cargo of oil" from Russia to India, it added.

The captain and first mate of the Boracay were detained on Tuesday over refusing to

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