Two years after the Al-Salam sank, with the loss of 1,034 lives, the owner of the ferry has been found not guilty of responsibility for Egypt's worst maritime disaster, reports Gamal Essam El-Din Sunday's acquittal of Mamdouh Ismail on manslaughter charges led many commentators to question what they say is the increasingly cosy relationship between political and business interests. The court said that Ismail, a former appointed member of the Shura Council and high-profile, business tycoon member of the NDP, bore no responsibility for the deaths of 1,034 Egyptians who drowned after a ferry belonging to one of his companies sank in the Red Sea two years ago. The ill-fated Al-Salam 98 Boccaccio ferry, which sank in the early dawn hours of 3 February 2006 was owned by Ismail's Al-Salam Company. Shocked public reaction to the verdict was reinforced by the manner in which the court failed to consider evidence contained in a People's Assembly fact finding report which concluded Ismail was largely responsible for the negligence that led to the tragedy. "Having expected Ismail to be convicted, we were deeply shocked when the court acquitted him," NDP MP Hamdi El-Tahhan, chairman of the committee that prepared the parliamentary report implicating the ferry owners, told Al-Ahram Weekly. The case, says Al-Ahram political analyst Amr Hashem Rabie, will only serve to confirm what most Egyptians already know. "It is the cosy relationship between businessmen and politicians that breeds the culture of corruption the price of which is paid by poor Egyptians," he says. The parliamentary report had accused Ismail of corruption and negligence, stressing the ways in which he had exploited his influence and membership of the NDP to bypass safety regulations and monopolise transport in the Red Sea, forcing passengers to travel on vessels that were unseaworthy. In what was seen as a bid to contain popular anger Prosecutor-General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud immediately announced that his office decided to file an appeal contesting the verdict. Court hearings on the appeal will begin on 3 September. Mahmoud's office said the court had ignored much of the evidence presented by the prosecution-general. The 27 July ruling of the Misdemeanour Court in the Red Sea city of Safaga found Ismail, his son Omar, and three other executives of Al-Salam Company, not guilty of manslaughter charges. The court did, however, sentence Alaaeddin Shahine, the captain of another ferry, to six months in jail and a fine of LE10,000 for failing to come to the assistance of Al-Salam 98 Boccaccio which sank after it caught fire. The court gave 11 reasons for its decision, emphasising that "the evidence presented by the prosecutor-general's office was not strong enough to convict Ismail". "The prosecutor-general's evidence that Ismail was largely to blame for failing to save the victims of the ill-fated ferry was inconclusive," read the court's ruling. The Red Sea Research and Rescue Centre knew of the accident before the defendants and "this clears them of any blame for delays in informing rescue authorities about the accident." The ruling added that, "Ismail is not the owner of the rescue vessels Al-Salam Knight and Eleanora and as a result was not in a position to order them to participate in the rescue operations." The court also concluded mistakes that may have been made during the disaster were "accidental" and that "post-mortem examinations did not reveal the time of death or show that there was a delay in rescue operations". The court's verdict was greeted with indignation by some judges. "It is," says veteran judge Ibrahim Darwish, "a black comedy when critics and opponents of the government face trial before military courts while wealthy NDP members such as Mamdouh Ismail are allowed to flee the country and then return to hire a bevy of lawyers to defend them." The Al-Salam ferry case provides fresh proof that "justice in Egypt is not blindfolded" says Hafez Abu Seada, secretary- general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR). Justice in Egypt, he told the Weekly, discriminates against the regime's political opponents and against the poor. An EOHR statement issued on Monday said that the organisation will join the team of lawyers that are defending the interests of victims' families and accused Egypt of being mired in a sea of corruption. Other judges pointed out that the verdict was inevitable given the manner in which the prosecutor-general's office had handled the case. Ahmed Mekki, a leading reformist judge, argued that in referring the defendants to trial the prosecution had focussed on the accusation that they had delayed informing the relevant authorities about the accident. "The charges brought were ill-judged, and the prosecution ignored many of the details provided by the parliamentary fact-finding report. They opted not to mention the fact that Ismail's company systematically violated safety measures and that the ferry, in order to increase company profits, was carrying more passengers than allowed by the maritime authorities." The case, says Mekki, once gain casts a spotlight on the erosion of judicial independence and highlights the "pernicious effects of the close ties between the NDP and big business." When it was issued, independent and opposition MPs accused the People's Assembly report into the disaster of not going far enough.
