"Fire on and destroy" requires movement in ship to be destroyed?

Description

I had one ship badly damaged and obsolete ship (small freighter - troop transport) stuck with no movement in a warp point sector.

I moved a functional cruiser attack ship to that sector and selected Fire on and destroy for the freighter. No action was carried out even after several turns.

Speculation in the forums is that the ship to be destroyed failed to be destroyed because it had no movement, and since it had no movement, it could not process its orders. Since it wasn't the one actually doing the shooting, however, it seems that movement should not be required for this action.