The head of a Tongan shipping line was jailed for five years on Monday after being convicted of manslaughter over a ferry sinking that claimed 74 lives.
Supreme Court Judge Robert Shuster said New Zealander John Jonesse, the former managing director of the Shipping Corporation of Polynesia (SCP), had shown no remorse over the loss of the Princess Ashika ferry in August 2009.
“I accept you have no shipping experience, I accept you are a management person, but frankly, you led a shambles of an organization,” Shuster told Jonesse during sentencing. “You are the one person here who showed no remorse nor [offered] any explanation.”
The Princess Ashika was on an overnight voyage from Nuku’alofa to an outlying island when it sank, trapping passengers, mostly women and children, below deck in the country’s worst maritime disaster.
The six-week trial heard evidence that the ship, built in the early 1970s, was riddled with rust holes and poorly maintained.
Three other men convicted of manslaughter by negligence alongside Jonesse received lesser sentences, while the government-owned SCP was fined 2 million pa’anga (US$1.1 million).
First mate Semisi Pomale was jailed for 18 months, captain Viliami Tuputupu for six months and former Tongan transport ministry official Viliami Tu’ipulotu was handed a suspended three-year sentence.
Jonesse was also convicted on additional charges of forgery over an audit document that falsely stated repair work had been carried out on the vessel.
The six-week trial was the largest ever held in Tonga and had to be moved from the Nuku’alofa Supreme Court building to the country’s parliament because of intense public interest in the proceedings.
The SCP bought the Princess Ashika three months before the sinking and it was on its fifth voyage when it went down.
Survivors at the time recalled water building up in the cargo hold before the ferry lurched violently and sank with little warning.
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