Four men went on trial yesterday charged with manslaughter following the sinking of the ferry Princess Ashika last year with the loss of 74 lives.
The four, Shipping Corporation of Polynesia managing director John Jonesse as well as the ferry captain, first mate and a senior public servant, face up to 25 years in jail if found guilty.
They are charged with the manslaughter of a 21-year-old Tongan woman, Vae Fetu’u Taufa, and taking an unseaworthy ship to sea. Jonesse, a New Zealander, is also charged with using a forged document.
The Princess Ashika sank in August while on an overnight voyage from Nuku‘alofa, the capital of the South Pacific nation, to an outlying island.
‘RUST BUCKET’
Survivors told of water building up in the cargo hold of the “rust bucket” before the ferry capsized around midnight, trapping sleeping passengers below deck.
An inquiry into the sinking described the tragedy as “scandalous” and found there was a lack of due diligence by the shipping firm and government when the unsafe ferry was bought.
The Princess Ashika was on its fourth voyage in Tonga when it sank and the inquiry blamed authorities for allowing it to sail, as evidence mounted that the vessel’s lack of seaworthiness led to the 74 deaths.
‘SCANDALOUS’
“The tragedy is that they were all easily preventable and the deaths were completely senseless,” the inquiry said.
“It was scandalous that such a maritime disaster could ever have been allowed to occur. It was a result of systemic and individual failures,” it said.
The ageing ferry built in the early 1970s was unsuitable for the open sea and clearly unseaworthy and in unsafe condition, the report said. Claims the ferry was well maintained, made by Jonesse and former transport minister Paul Karalus, were “not only patently absurd, but dishonest.”
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