Relatives Of victims still await Maltese justice a year later

Malta Independent Sunday, 7 January 2007, 00:00 Last update: about 14 years ago

One year after the tragedy of the Klein Familie, a trawler that collided with a tanker flying the Maltese flag that claimed five victims, the families of the victims are still waiting for justice to be done and are urging the Maltese authorities to hurry up with their inquiry.

On the morning of 5 January 2006, the 14.4-metre long trawler from Cherbourg was returning from a night out fishing at sea when it sank to the seabed, 73 metres down, after being hit by Sichem Pandora, a 117-metre long cargo ship flying the Maltese flag.

One year after the tragedy, the families of the victims, Thierry Goueslain, 36, Franck Hérauville, 45, Ludovic Hérauville, 34, Olivier Brusa, 34, and Frédéric Terpereau, 19, are getting impatient.

“Since last October,” Gildas Rostain, the Parisian lawyer representing the families of the victims, told Associated Press, “we have heard nothing from Jacqueline Padovani (Grima), the Maltese judge charged with the inquiry.

“While the civil procedure taken in hand by the tribunal of Dunkerque is moving ahead rapidly, the same cannot be said of the penal procedure undertaken by the State of Malta and we await eagerly the experts’ reports and the conclusions of the inquiry to be able to determine the precise causes of the shipwreck and the responsibilities involved,” the judge said.

Following this drama, which took place in international waters and in which there was only one survivor, Jean Michel Gueno, 19, the “families are still stricken by the deaths of their loved ones. They insist that justice must be done and they want to know why the crew and captain of the Sichem Pandora did not react to the accident.”

After the collision, the ship, leased by the Danish company Tesma Holding, continued on its way and entered the port of Dunkerque, where it was consigned to quay for several days while the French investigators did their job. The investigations revealed traces of green paint, the colour of the trawler, on the ship.

Besides, some days after the shipwreck, human and robot divers found traces of orange colour, the colour of the Sichem Pandora, on the trawler remains on the seabed.

The cargo ship was authorised to leave the port of Dunkerque on 27 January after the payment of euro 1.522 million, as decided by the Dunkerque tribunal.