The 21st Century Donshawy : Salam 98 {1}

It is the worse verdict since Donshawy

Wahid Hamad , Screenplay writer 2008

In 1906 Innocent Egyptians were victims of a trial Justice would be forever ashamed of . The society and also the history condemned  the man who did not respect the responsibility of judge in front of God  in order to please the British Occupation forces . People were executed then for no guilt they made on the contrary they were executed for the help they gave to the British sick officers came to the village in a historical tragic moment.
Now after 102 years from that infamous disgraceful court rule in Donshawy , another court rule in 2008 shocked the whole nation. This 2008 court rule in my opinion is far more worse than the 1906 court rule. Do not be surprised my dear reader but remember in 1906 we were not a free country ruled by Egyptians , we were occupied Nation, in 1906 the judge was trying to please the British occupiers where as in 2008 the Egyptian judge sorry the whole Egyptian regime in the free Egypt was against its own people .
Historians chose the trial of Donshawy as the worst trial in Egypt in the 20th Century despite there were other trials afterwards justice is  innocent from like some of the Revolution trials. And now I chose the Salam Ferry 2008 court rule in July 2008 to be the worst in the 21st century despite we are still in the beginning of this century but how can another trial be worse than this ??
I mean just look from the start , when the Salam 98 Ferry sunk in the Red sea in January 2006 with 1035 Egyptian citizens ,all the fingers of accusation went to the owner of the ferry , Maritime transportation Tycoon Mamdouh Ismail. It is not about the blame but he was really responsible for this. It is enough to know that man knew that the ferry sunk with all those people on its board and did not inform the authorities except after hours and when he informed the authorities he told them that his ferry disappeared !! There is a huge difference between informing that it was sunk and that it disappeared.
You have to know that the Salam Ferry 98 was not the first ferry owned Mr.Mamdouh Ismail that sunk in the red sea.
Here is a little history from the archives :
Salam 90: The Salam horrors start
The Salam 98 was the first ferry that drowns for Mamdouh Ismail, in fact before 98 there were 90, 95 and 90 versions 2.They were like early warning signals we do not pay attention too, may be it is not in our hands still we should have paid attention.
On 22^nd June 2002 Salam 90 drowned in front of the shore of Dubai in its way back to Safga.
Salam 95: The second warning that no one paid attention to
After Salam 91 there was Salam 95 whose drowning was some kind like of another warning that if we paid attention too as it should be may be all the passengers of Salam 98.We should have investigated the mother company and its ferries but of course this happens only in civilized democratic country not 3 world rotten corrupted dictatorships !!
The Salam 95 drowned after a collision with a Cargo ship from Cyprus “The pearl of Mount Ali” on the 18^th October 2005 near Port Tawfik Three people were killed among them a lady, 30 were injured. The passengers on its board were 1466 among them 120 from the crew. The passengers were mainly Egyptians who returned from the Holy land the captain of the ferry was found guilty in 2007.
And the Salam 98 comes in the end !!
It is not coincidence that all those ferries sunk, do not put the blame all the captains but put the blame on greedy Ismail who bought very old ferries expired from long time.
Oh yes old ferries.
When Mamdouh Ismail had bought the fleet of Salam ferries from Italian Tirrenia for navigation in 1999, they were expired old ferries rejected by international navigation standards. He bought 5 ferries as Junk from the Italian company; all of them were made between 1969 and 1971not as ferries!!! The ferries had Italian names the Egyptian company added to it the Salam name as soon as they arrived to Egypt and they were respectively: Salam 90, Salam 92, Salam 94, Salam 96 and Salam 98. As you can see two of them drowned.
As soon as they had arrived to Egypt, they were changed from Junk to working ferries, because they were so old and no complying with the new standards of safety, also their capacity was not enough for the greed of Ismail and son, new waiting and parking areas were built increasing the load on the old ferries.
M/V Salam Boccaccio 98 was built in 1971 and he had to register it in Panama not in Egypt because according to the Egyptian marine navigation laws say that the ferries and ships should not be older than 25 years. He also got a safety certificate from some Italian agency, according to experts that Italian agency is not as reliable as the British or French or Danish agencies.
Its Italian Name Boccaccio is the name of a famous Italian poet and author Giovanni Boccaccio from the 14^th Century by the way. He was famous renaissance humanist, Yeah Humanist , now it is officially in Egypt associated with a death ferry.
So as you can see he bought very old expired ferries jeopardizing the life of thousands if not millions but he also knew that the ferry sunk and he did not inform the authorities except that it was too late to save anyone , the thing which made many believe that he wanted this to happen so he will get a big insurance. Jeopardizing the life of thousands and causing their death in the most worse way ever are crime, not a felony.
This is post is the first in a series of about the Salam ferry 98
And as usual I will leave with the last moments of the ferry of death

Sources:

• Al-Masry Al Youm
• Wikipedia : Ferry
• Wikipedia : Al Salam Boccaccio 98

Photo source : Getty Image.

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