Egypt Charges Al-Safat’s Captain, First Officer with Manslaughter

Egypt’s Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat ordered on Saturday that the captain and first officer of a Kuwaiti container ship Al-Safat are to be refereed to a criminal court over charges of manslaughter in connection to the collision in the Red Sea earlier this month, when 25 Egyptian fishermen died, with several more injured, the state news agency MENA reports.

Egyptian authorities detained the captain and first officer along with the 6,921 TEU containership, operated by UASC,  at the Port of Safaga, shortly after the incident.

After hitting the fishing boat ”Badr,” which was reportedly carrying forty men at the time of the accident, Al-Safat failed to stop, said Bakri Abul Hassan, the head of Egypt’s main fishermen’s trade union, also adding that the accident happened between Ras Ghareb and El-Tor on the Sinai Peninsula.

Al-Safat was en route from Italy to Saudi Arabia when the accident occurred.

The initial reports said that 13 fishermen died, with 13 others still missing at the time, but the death toll increased to 25. According to MENA, three fishermen are still unaccounted for.

World Maritime News Staff; Image: UASC