Last weekend, a Ukrainian was arrested on board the cruise ship MSC Euribia in Kiel because of an outstanding arrest warrant for tax evasion. According to the local authorities, if he had stayed outside Germany, he would have been released – but as things stand, he will have to spend more than three years in prison.

MSC Euribia operates a week-long round-trip service between Kiel, Copenhagen and Norway. When the ship returned to Kiel harbor, authorities checked the passenger list and found a wanted name: a 53-year-old Ukrainian with an active arrest warrant. The man had previously been deported and faced a remaining prison sentence of more than 1,100 days if he ever returned – a sentence he must now serve.

“Why he travelled back to Germany despite these circumstances will probably remain his secret, especially since the arrest warrant would no longer have been valid in a year,” a spokesman for the Kiel police told the “Hamburger Abendblatt”.

It was not the first time that a wanted man was arrested for Euribia Passenger list. In July, Kiel police found and arrested a 36-year-old German citizen who had been released from prison and failed to show up to serve a sentence for drunk driving. The man turned himself in when confronted and returned to serve the remaining 15 days of his sentence, according to Abdenblatt.

MSC Euribia is a brand new, family-oriented cruise ship with space for up to 4,800 passengers. It is powered by LNG and currently serves the German and Scandinavian markets. Since Tuesday Euribia was operating off the coast of Norway and had four planned port stays before returning to Kiel.