CAIRO: The first court session of the appeal against the verdict in the doomed Al Salam 98 ferry case will be heard in a Safaga court today. The verdict, which was issued on July 27, cleared five of the six defendants of any responsibility for the sunken ship. "We are expecting a high attendance level from the families of the victims and political activists as many political parties and Kefaya members have informed us that they're attending, said Yasser Fathi, member of the defense committee. For the defense, as Fathi explained, the high attendance and the show of support in the first appeal hearing is important to the case. "We are going to present a request to reconsider all evidence and call the witnesses in to testify again, he added. When the verdict was issued last July, lawyers criticized the way former Prosecutor General Maher Abdel Wahed had referred the case to Safaga's misdemeanors court instead of a criminal court. They claimed that this had paved the way for an acquittal for Mamdouh Ismail and other executives deemed responsible. This appeal is being tried in the same court because, as Fathi explained, they are appealing a verdict that was issued from a misdemeanors court and not a criminal court. "When the misdemeanors court rules that this is a criminal case, the whole case will be referred back to the prosecutor general's office from which it will be referred to a criminal court, he said. The appeal will be heard in Safaga despite the defense committee's request for the Minister of Justice and Minister of Interior Affairs to move the trial to Cairo. Fathi suspects that holding the trial in Safaga was done intentionally to prevent the majority of families, activists and the media from attending. "The request we filed wasn't even looked at, said Fathi, adding that "the main losers in this case are the victims' families. Al Salam 98 Boccaccio ferry sank in the Red Sea on Feb. 3, 2006, claiming the lives of more than 1,000 Egyptians who were coming back from Saudi Arabia. On July 27, Safaga Misdemeanors Court found owner Mamdouh Ismail, his son Amr and three other Al-Salam Company executives not guilty of manslaughter charges. Only Alaaeddin Shahin, the captain of another ferry, the Saint Catherine, was sentenced to six months in jail and given a LE 10,000 fine for failing to show "compassion and not offering assistance to the ship, which sank after it caught fire. At the time, Fathi described the verdict as "weak and in favor of Mamdouh Ismail as it has ignored all evidence presented and testimonies of witnesses during the long-running trial, which all find him guilty.
