Drowned Bulgarian Tourists Trial Fails to Start in Ohrid

Crime | January 18, 2011, Tuesday // 13:18|  views

A Macedonian police boat tows the recovered sunken boat 'Ilinden,' into the Ohrid marina on September 19, 2009, two weeks after the tragic boath accident in Ohrid Lake when 15 Bulgarian tourists lost their lives. Photo by BGNES

The trial for the tourist boat Ilinden, which sank in the Macedonian Ohrid Lake on September 5, 2009, killing 15 Bulgarian tourists, has once again been postponed.

The reason was that Branco Baic, the representative of the German company Lloyd, which issued the necessary certificates ensuring the road worthiness of Ilinden, failed to appear in the courthouse for the second time. The first hearing of the trial was initially scheduled for October 26, 2010.

The Prosecutor's Office has suggested that the court should decide on February 26 whether to sentence Baic in his absence.

Baic issued the necessary certificate ensuring the road worthiness of Ilinden only four months before the tragedy.

After the accident, the vessel's captain, Sotir Filevski, was arrested immediately and was held 30 days in custody. At present, he is under house arrest. He is the other defendant in the case.

At the time of the tragedy, there were 54 Bulgarian tourists and three crew members on board. The tourists were going on a trip to the Monastery of Saint Naum, situated south of the city of Ohrid. About 200-300 meters from the shore, the boat sinks in minutes.  

According to the official documents, the vessel had the capacity for 43 people.

The versions about the cause of the sinking of the ship have to do with overloading, a torn balancing rope, incorrect distribution of the people on board, and mistakes by the captain.

The Bulgarian organizer of the ill-fated trip to Ohrid a year ago, Boryana Georgieva, has already been sentenced for carrying out business activities in violation of the Tourism Act. She was sentenced to pay a fine of BGN 4 500, and was banned from commercial activity for 2 years.

The Ilinden vessel was produced in 1924 in Regensburg, Germany, as a military boat later refashioned into a tourist ship. Its last technical check had been carried out by Lloyd in May 2009.

Bulgaria has awarded medals and citizenship to the Macedonians who took part in the rescuing of the drowning tourists, most of whom came from the town of Pirdop. 

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Tags: Ilinden, Ohrid, Ohrid Lake, Bulgarians, drowned, trial, Branko Baic, Sotir Filevski

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