The court, presided over by magistrate Dennis Montebello, said that the Armed Forces of Malta had made serious mistakes in plotting positions and that the evidence given was conflicting. He also said that the trawler was being monitored by satellite and that the bearings registered on the satellite system showed that the vessel did not come closer than 26 miles.
The charges were made against the Alexander K’s captain Wagih Mohammed El Ghaly, 37, his brother Oussama Mohammed El Ghaly, 26, their two cousins Emad El Din Khalil Heagazy, 29 and Ibrahim Khalil Abou Hegazy, 28 and Abou Helmy El Bousaty, 30.
The five men were accused of fishing in Malta’s 25-mile conservation zone without a licence. The captain was also charged with failing to notify a fisheries protection officer of the amount and description of fish found on the vessel, as well as not having stowed away fishing gear while the boat was sailing in Maltese waters.
The court said one of the major discrepancies was that the AFM said that between 10pm, when the vessel was first spotted and 10.20pm, the vessel was supposed to have moved from 22.27 miles off Delimara point to 25.39 miles – while its nets were still cast. The magistrate said that if the boat was moving directly away from Delimara point, it would have had to have covered 3.12 miles in 20 minutes.
He said that calculations showed that would mean the fishing vessel travelling at 9.36 knots. However, when looking at the documents produced by the AFM, it turned out that the boat actually moved in a northerly direction and not away from Delimara.
However, 9.36 knots is an impossible speed for a fishing trawler, more so with its nets cast, said Dr Montebello. To compound matters further, one of the crew who was manning the radar said that the GPS system established that the vessel’s speed was only of 3.5-4.5 knots.
“The captain said his vessel cannot travel in excess of two knots with its nets cast. This sequence of events points towards serious error in plotting the Alexander K’s position,” he said. He said that the AFM’s report “was not reliable” in giving a true position of the Alexander K.
Magistrate Montebello also said that the court had received information from INMARSAT-C, a satellite company that keeps track of the bearing of ships. He pointed out that over three days, including the day the incident took place, INMARSAT-C tracked the vessel, obtaining a fix every hour or so. All relevant fixes were plotted and showed that the vessel was never closer than 26 miles off Delimara point.
The accused were therefore cleared of all charges and walked free from court. Police inspector Ramon Mercieca prosecuted and Dr Ramona Frendo, Dr Leslie Cuschieri and Dr Daniella Mangion appeared for the defendants.