CAIRO - Chief Prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud has asked Mohamed Yassin, the Public Attorney of the Red Sea Governorate, to investigate complaints, that were filed again last week by the families of the victims of a sunken ferryship. In February 2006, the Al-Salam Boccacio 98 ferry went down about 80km (50 miles) off the Egyptian coast in the Red Sea during an overnight crossing from Duba in Saudi Arabia to the port of Safaga, resulting in the loss of 1,034 lives. “About 20 rescuers were abducted, so as to conceal the truth about the sunken ferry,” read the newly presented complaints, with the complainants rejecting the Chief Prosecutor's decision to refer the case to a local Red Sea prosecutor. “Rather, the case should be recorded as a criminal offence and it should be reinvestigated” added the complainants. Ex-Member of Parliament Mamdouh Ismail, the owner of the ferry, fled to London in the aftermath of the tragedy. “The new complaints have accused the former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly of permitting Ismail to flee, as a a favour to a friend of Ismail, namely Zakaria Azmi, the former chief of the Presidential Staff,” Mohamed Hashem, one of the families' lawyers, told Egynews website. “In addition, the Interior Ministry officials have not arrested any of the suspects, who face prison sentences,” he added. “Next week, the victims' families will go to the Red Sea's Public Attorney to submit the evidence for their complaints.”
