A civil court in Genoa has ruled that RINA, the Italian maritime registry, must pay more than 60 million euros in compensation to about 700 families of the victims of the sinking of the ferry 'Al Salam Boccaccio 98', one of the most serious maritime disasters of this century, in which 1,071 people died in the Red Sea in February 2006.
According to the resolution released by the ANSA agency, the main responsibility for the sinking lies with the negligence of RINA. The ship, which previously operated under the name 'Tirrenia' and was sold to an Egyptian shipowner in 1999, suffered a fire on board on the night of February 2 to 3 of that year, an incident that triggered the tragedy.
Judge Daniele Bianchi concluded that "neither the captain nor the crew received operational instructions in English or in any other language they understood" and that, therefore, "when a fire broke out on board, they were unable to understand how to discharge the excess water from the ballast tanks."
According to the ruling, "this circumstance would have led the captain, in an attempt to counteract the list caused by the fire in the garage, to perform a maneuver that proved fatal, causing the ship to capsize and ultimately sink."
The ruling is based on a detailed expert report requested by the judge himself at the end of 2022, which also points out another 22 alleged instances of negligence, including deficiencies in crew training and in the control of safety drills on board.
The families who had not yet received any compensation will receive, on average, between 100,000 and 150,000 euros for the death of their loved one, according to the court's decision.
The judge has also established an additional compensation for some of the relatives who had already been compensated in Egypt, as the criteria provided by Islamic law had not been applied, which grants women half the compensation assigned to men with the same degree of kinship. The total claim presented by the families' lawyers amounted to 300 million euros.
In an initial reaction, the Group of Non-Governmental Experts Global Relief System/Association of Radioelectronic Engineers (ARE) expresses its discontent because the ruling does not mention at any time the Maritime Safety Committee established in its day on this case nor its conclusions, and focuses the spotlight on the main responsibility of the Italian Maritime Registry.