The Paris Court of Appeals has reopened an inquiry on a shipwreck dating back to 2011 when 63 migrants died. They had been left at sea with no help for two weeks.
The Paris Court of Appeals last week reopened an inquiry on a tragedy at sea dating back to March-April 2011, when a dinghy full of migrants, among them pregnant women and children, went adrift for two weeks off the Libyan coasts, without receiving any support.
The total number of deaths was of 63 people of the 72 traveling on board.
According to what was referred last Thursday (September 22) to France Presse, justice in Paris has rejected the closing of the case pronounced in 2018 and instead ordered, according to a source in the know, to reopen the inquiry.
New elements and the reopening of the inquiry
French judges decided to reopen the file, especially due to the emergence of new elements and proof and a crossed inquiry realized in Italy, Belgium and Spain, in addition to the ship log books of all boat and planes that were in the area at the time.
The inquiry in France was opened due to the claim and accusation on the part of some survivors of having been abandoned at sea by western military marine, including the French one.
The so-called "boat of death" had left from Tripoli, Libya, headed to Italy on the night between March 26 and 27, 2011. Survivors confirm that, during those 14 days of horror, from March 27 until April 10, their dinghy was seen and photographed by a huge military airplane, two helicopters fled over it, one even launched them "some biscuits and bottles of water" and that their path crossed with at least two fishing boats.
Survivor calls for justice
"As I am one of the few survivors of this tragedy that killed 63 persons right under the eyes of European military ships, I continue to call for justice, because I witnessed it all. Saving lives would have been very easy, since they gave us some food. I hope the judge will quickly come to a decision and verdict on this file," says, Abu Kurke Kebato, a 35-year-old survivor, currently residing in the Netherlands.
According to lawyer Stéphane Maugendre, on the part of the plaintiffs, "eleven years to obtain, in particular, the boat logs that can prove the guilt or not of the French marine is quite a long time."