Santorini shipwreck trial ends with nine convictions
Nine of 13 people standing trial for the past four months were convicted on Wednesday over the 2007 sinking of the Sea Diamond cruise ship off the coast of the southeastern Aegean island of Santorini, in which two French tourists, a father and daughter, died.
The captain of the Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines vessel, which struck a reef near the island’s Athinios Port in April 2007, was sentenced by a Piraeus criminal court to 12 years and 2 months and ordered to pay a fine of 8,000 euros. The first mate and the shipowner’s designated personnel ashore were each sentenced to eight years, the chief engineer received 28 months, the navigator received 2 years and 10 months, the officer in charge of safety procedures got 6 months and a 600-euro fine, the surveyor received a 15-month jail sentence and two of the company’s received two years each.
Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines is planning to appeal the verdict of its two representatives.
According to local media, none of the parties will serve jail time either because their sentences will be commuted or because they have been given the option to pay a 10-euro daily fine in lieu of time behind bars.
Jean Christophe Allain, 45, and his daughter Maud, 16, went missing after their cabin flooded and the ship went down. Their bodies have not been found and they are presumed dead.
