Five cleared of blame for 1,000 ferry deaths

SCUFFLES erupted at an Egyptian court yesterday when five of six defendants were cleared of blame for a 2006 ferry sinking in which more than 1,000 people died, Egypt’s worst maritime disaster.

Hysterical relatives voiced anger as only Salaheddin Gomaa, captain of another ferry, the Saint Catherine, was jailed for six months for failing to come to the assistance of the Al-Salam Boccaccio 98, a judicial source said.

Public prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmud issued a statement saying he would appeal the ruling and called for a retrial.

The Al-Salam sank in the Red Sea on February 3, 2006, as it was carrying more than 1,400 people from Saudi Arabia to the Egyptian port of Safaga.

“My brother, my brother,” one woman screamed after the verdict, according to footage shown on Al-Jazeera television.

Dozens of relatives, many carrying photos of their dead loved ones, were crammed into the court building. Others wailed in grief on the steps outside. “God help us, 1,034 people are dead!” shouted one man.

Most of the victims were from poor families in southern Egypt.

“The day of the accident everybody saw that the ship was in bad shape and two years later they say the boat was in good shape. It doesn’t make sense,” one man told Al-Jazeera.

“This is awful. My wife and children died and after two years everyone responsible is found to be innocent,” he said, slamming some defendants for leaving the country pending the court’s ruling.

The Saint Catherine captain was also fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds (€1,200).

Main defendant Mamduh Ismail, who owned the 36-year-old Al-Salam and is a member of parliament’s upper house, was acquitted.

In June 2006, Ismail was ordered to pay 330 million Egyptian pounds into a fund to compensate victims of the disaster and in return, a freeze on his assets was lifted.

Also accused were Ismail’s son and three Al-Salam executives. Ismail, his son and one of the executives are not in Egypt.

In 2006, an inquiry blamed Al-Salam for the disaster, saying the firm had continued to operate the ferry “despite serious defects” in the vessel.

It also said the government “failed to manage the crisis adequately” in the days after the sinking.

The passengers on the ferry were mostly Egyptian migrant workers, some of whom were bringing months’, if not years’ worth of savings to their families back home.