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A Maltese of Pakistani origin, Sheik Ahmed Turab (44) has once again been called to face the court in Syracuse for his involvement in the Yiohan tragedy when nearly 300 immigrants drowned between Malta and Sicily.
The court case is to continue Tuesday 18 May, but Turab does not intend attending since he argues that he has already been acquitted of voluntary mass homicide and the captain of the ship Youssef El Hallal was recently acquitted too.
The captain’s acquittal was made on the basis that he could not be tried because the tragedy did not occur in Italian territorial waters, and Turab is hoping for the same outcome.
St Edward’s educated Turab sees no reason why he should be held responsible for the deaths as he claims he did everything in his power to prevent them, but could face extradition proceedings if found guilty in Syracuse.
In Malta it is not possible to try someone for the same or similar charges twice, but the Italian court in Syracuse decided to try Turab for involuntary homicide, a different charge from the one he was previously acquitted of.
In his evidence Turab had explained how he decided not to go on the boat carrying the mostly Pakistani and Indian passengers (there were also Kurds and Tamils) because the sea was too rough and how he had tried to persuade the captain that the trip should be cancelled.
According to Sheik, the mission was taken over by a Greek associate of an alleged Indian trafficker who assembled a crew at the last minute. It was reported in the British Observer that one Maltese crew-member claimed to have experience of the sea, and when Turab asked him what kind, he replied that he cleaned the beach.
The tragedy occurred when, in bad weather conditions, 283 immigrants were transferred from the Yiohan, captained by El Hallal, to another boat - a former RAF search and rescue launch – on the night of Christmas day 1996. Before the transfer could take place the two boats collided sending the Yiohan with most of the immigrants inside it to the bottom of the sea. It was the biggest maritime disaster in the Mediterranean since the Second World War.
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