A day after an Egyptian court acquitted five of six defendants of a ferryboat fire case that killed more than 1,000 people in 2006, Egypt's prosecutor general ordered Monday to hold an appeal hearing in September.
Prosecutor General Counsellor Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud said the hearing on the acquittals in the Al-Salam 98 ferry case will be held on Sept. 3, the first day Egyptian courts resume sessions following the summer recess.
Mahmoud also approved a memorandum containing the details of the arguments for the appeal which was prepared by a special team together with the prosecutor of the Red Sea governorate.
On Sunday, the Misdemeanor Court of the Egyptian port of Safaga acquitted five of six defendants of Al-Salam 98 ferryboat fire case, according to the official MENA news agency.
The defendants, including the owner of the ferry Mamdouh Ismail Mohammed Ali who reportedly fled his country and was tried in absentia, faced charges of criminal negligence and failure to savethe passengers when the disaster occurred.
The court said in its verdicts that the ferryboat owner and four other defendants were found not guilty in the case, said the report.
The Al-Salam 98 ferryboat, carrying some 1,400 passengers, caught fire and sank into the Red Sea en route from Saudi Arabian port of Dhaba to the Egyptian Red Sea port of Safaga in February, 2006.
A total of 1,034 people, most of them Egyptians, died in the maritime disaster.
The Safaga court said "the prosecution had not questioned all those who were classified as witnesses and there was no distinct proof that deaths and injuries took place after the ferry sank and before they could be rescued."
In addition, the court said "forensic evidence had not specified when the deaths occurred after the vessel sank and before the bodies were plucked out from the waters."
Only Salah Gomaa, captain of another ferryboat, was sentenced to six months in jail and a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (about 1,887 U.S. dollars) after being convicted of failing to respond to the appeals for help from the sinking ferry.
Family members and relatives of the victims voiced their angry to the verdict, expecting the defendants to receive a harsher punishment.
TV footage showed dozens of people, most of them relatives of the victims, gathered outside the court on Sunday.
After hearing of the verdict, some of the women screamed and other people tried to cross into the courtroom which was guarded by security personnel.
Mohamed Hashem, lawyer representing some of the victims' families, said the verdict is "biased in every possible way" and they are "definitely going to appeal this verdict," the Daily News Egypt reported on Monday.
Shortly after the court's decision, Prosecutor General Mahmoud announced Sunday in Cairo he was appealing against the verdict of the Safaga court.
Mahmoud said the case should be retried, referring to "violations in documented records, corruption in investigation, shortcomings in validatings and arbitrary conclusions," MENA reported.
Source:Xinhua
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