A fisherman will be tried after the death of two employees during a shipwreck

A 61-year-old fisherman, owner of a ship that sank off Agde (Hérault) on the night of November 29 to 30, will be tried in November for manslaughter, announced the Béziers prosecution. Two men he employed, aged 23 and 33, died in the sinking. Only the captain had been rescued.

From the start of the investigations, the investigators had highlighted irregularities: the navigation permit only authorized two people on board, and the wreckage had been found 8.7 miles away, well beyond the 5-mile threshold. that the ship was not allowed to pass. In addition, the captain is suspected of having refrained “from alerting the emergency services when the circumstances demanded it”. He did not ask his fishermen, two brothers, to put on their work clothes with integrated buoyancy, and did not launch the life raft, detailed the prosecution.

He disputes “several of the faults”

The fisherman will also be prosecuted for carrying out concealed work, since he is accused of having illegally employed one of the two brothers who did not have a professional seaman’s certificate. He will also be tried for insurance fraud, which the respondent formally contests. “He also disputes several of the faults found by the prosecution, such as manslaughter, stating in particular that he had not had time to use the emergency equipment (…) and that he had then tried everything to provide assistance. to his two young fisherman, in vain”, reported the prosecutor of Béziers, Raphaël Balland.

Pending his trial, the sexagenarian was placed under judicial control, with the prohibition to come into contact with the families of the victims.

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