CAIRO, 8 June 2006 — The owner of a ferry that sank in the Red Sea and left more than 1,000 people dead, has paid 330 million Egyptian pounds ($57 million) into a fund to compensate victims of the disaster, the official MENA news agency reported.
Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, Prosecutor General Gaber Rihan said that, in return, he had lifted a freeze on the assets of the ferry owner, Mamduh Ismail.
The trial of Ismail and five others opened Monday, but none of them was in court.
Ismail owns Al-Salam, the company that operated the 36-year-old passenger ferry that sailed between Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
He left Egypt after the disaster and traveled to London, where he remains. He already faces an Interpol arrest warrant for absconding in the wake of what was the deadliest disaster in Egyptian maritime history.
His son, three Al-Salam executives and the captain of the ferry Saint Catherine, who is accused of not going to the aid of the stricken vessel, were also absent from court. Their whereabouts is unknown.
Judges issued arrest warrants for all of the accused, and Rihan told journalists that the money paid by Ismail will not affect the warrants against him.
In a report published in April, a parliamentary commission of inquiry blamed Al-Salam for the disaster, saying the firm 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.
Ismail has denied responsibility for the disaster, and accused the captain of the Al-Salam 98, who went down with his ship, of overestimating the crew’s ability to fight a fire, which broke out on board.
About 1,000 people died when the Al-Salam 98 ferry went down on February 3 between the Saudi port of Duba and Safaga in Egypt.
