Judge Ismael Moreno, instructor of the National Court, has asked the Ministry of Transport to explain “urgently” why the orders he gave regarding the operation to locate and lower the Galician fishing boat have not been followed. Villa de Pitanxo, which sank on February 15, 2022 450 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland (Canada). Through a harsh letter dated this Monday, the magistrate reproaches the Government for the fact that the expedition set sail from the port of Vigo (Pontevedra) on May 17 “without the express authorization of this Court”, and without having “complied” with the “reiterated ” indications that were transmitted to them. Ismael Moreno maintains an investigation into the shipwreck, which left 21 victims: nine sailors dead and twelve missing.
In his brief, the judge addresses the heads of the Permanent Commission for the Investigation of Maritime Accidents and Incidents (Ciaim) and the General Sub-directorate of Administration and Financial Management, both dependent on the Transport portfolio, so that they “urgently report of the reasons why the order has not been duly complied with”. The magistrate stresses that his instructions were “clear and precise.” In fact, in a letter dated May 8, he already asked the ministry for all the information and documentation related to the “contracting and awarding” of the project to search for and inspect the sunken fishing vessel. And he warned: “In order for the Court to agree with the company awarded the dates on which the operation will be carried out.”
Moreno also reminded Transport, whose minister is the socialist Raquel Sánchez, that it was up to the National Court to “determine” the dates “of completion” of the operation, as well as “the form and intervening experts.” However, she received no response for days. The magistrate explains that it was not until 9:27 p.m. on May 16, when there were barely a few hours left before the expedition set sail —on board the ship artabroof the company ACSM Ships—, when Ciaim sent him an email informing him of the imminent departure: the next day. Therefore, on May 17, the instructor sent a new letter to the Ministry to underline his indications.
But it was to no avail. “Apparently, the ship has set sail with a single judicial expert —despite the fact that two technicians had been appointed—, without the express authorization of this Court, totally and absolutely regardless of all the extremes and circumstances outlined in the official letter,” denounces this Monday the magistrate, who still has no official record of the departure of the artabro. For this reason, the judge demands explanations and information from the ministry: “If one of the designated judicial experts is on board, the itinerary and the dates of the contracted work; as well as the measures that have been adopted or are going to be adopted to guarantee the physical presence of the two judicial experts for the practice of the agreed judicial expertise, since they will be the ones who must issue the corresponding expert report and present it before this court.”
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Last week, the families of the victims denounced that the expedition began without authorization from the court and even requested the return of the artabro. “We, more than anyone, want that ship to leave, but it has to be in compliance with all the guarantees so that no one questions the validity of this test,” said the spokesperson for the group, María José de Pazo: “The Ministry has been complicit in the departure of a ship without judicial authorization […] Why is all work spoiled like this? Why are three million euros thrown away from all taxpayers? It’s everyone’s money. Pedro Sánchez does not put it ”.
This Monday, the families have had an impact on the same thing and have branded as “nonsense and nonsense” the actions of the personnel responsible for the Ministry of Transport who decided to start the expedition to locate the Villa de Pitanxo without the authorization of the examining magistrate. “It is very sad that after a year of fighting to get this judicial step taken in the investigation, the results can be questioned due to a bad performance that implies flagrant disobedience to the order of the instructor on May 8,” he commented. De Pazo, who hopes that “those responsible for this nonsense give a convincing explanation of the action.” The spokeswoman is also confident that with “this order of the judge the situation can be redirected so that an event like this does not happen again.”
One day after the ship sailed artabro, Ciaim issued a statement. The note stated: “On board the ship, in addition to its crew and the personnel necessary for the operation of the underwater search and inspection equipment, a member of Ciaim is on board, as well as a representative of the European Maritime Safety Agency ( EMSA), which participates in the operations as an observer. He has also embarked a legal expert, appointed by the Central Court of Instruction number 2 of the National Court, to participate in the operations within the framework of the legal proceedings that are carried out in that court for this accident ”.
Transportes calculates that “localization and inspection operations in the area” of the shipwreck can take up to 25 days, “depending on the weather conditions, to which must be added the two weeks of round-trip navigation from Vigo”. “In this way, it is expected that the ship artabro arrive in Vigo before the end of June, a forecast that may vary depending on the development of operations”.
Judge Moreno keeps the boss of the Villa de Pitanxo, Juan Padín, for 21 crimes of homicide for serious negligence and against the rights of workers. Padín and his nephew, Eduardo Rial (two of the only three survivors), officially stated that, after suffering a “sudden” stop in the main engine in the middle of reeling in the gear, the fishing vessel sank “very quickly” by the sea blows that heeled it. However, the third survivor, the sailor Samuel Kwesi, offered a different version and said that Padín did not heed the warnings that the sailors had given him, and that he did not give the order to abandon ship or put on survival suits.
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