Rejects an appeal from the Prosecutor’s Office that asked to send the case to the courts of Vigo
MADRID / VIGO, 4 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Criminal Chamber of the National High Court (AN) has confirmed this Friday that it is the competent court to investigate the shipwreck of the Galician fishing vessel ‘Villa de Pitanxo’ that occurred in waters near the Island of Newfoundland (Canada) on 14 December. February, which left nine dead, twelve missing and only three survivors, thus rejecting an appeal filed by the Prosecutor’s Office, which advocated sending the case to the Vigo courts.
In an order this Friday, the magistrates of the Third Section of the Criminal Chamber have endorsed the decision adopted on September 8 by the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 2, Ismael Moreno, by which he agreed to stay with judicial investigations.
It should be remembered that at first there were doubts about which was the competent court. The Prosecutor’s Office initially pointed out that they were the Pontevedra courts of Marín, as it is the city where the base port of the ‘Villa de Pitanxo’ is located, but they refused to stay with the matter, considering that it should be investigated in the National High Court because the alleged crimes were committed in international waters.
In a second report, the Prosecutor’s Office indicated that the Vigo courts were competent, as it was the port from which the ship sailed on January 26, a second thesis that was rejected by Moreno himself, considering that it is not clear how it should apply the law in this specific case and that, since it has already been in charge of carrying out the first steps, it is up to it to continue with the investigations.
The Chamber aligns itself with Moreno in that it recalls that the Supreme Court has already ruled on this type of conflict of jurisdiction, indicating that “the investigation into the sinking of a Spanish ship in international waters corresponds to the central courts” because, if referred to ordinary courts, “some very complex problems of territorial jurisdiction would arise that would trigger inevitable delays”.
To this he adds that the National High Court has been the first court to have knowledge of the facts, admitting the complaint of the families of the deceased and initiating the investigations by taking statements from the three survivors.
“No advantage, and yes undesirable delays, would now mean depriving the court ‘a quo’ of a jurisdiction, already accepted, on a case that it is processing,” the magistrates resolve.
Moreno has already taken a statement from the skipper of the fishing boat, Juan Padín, as the accused, his nephew Eduardo Rial and the sailor Samuel Kwesi, as witnesses, as they are the only survivors of the shipwreck.
The judicial investigations are due to the fact that Kwesi has offered a version that contradicts the one exposed by Padín and Rial and that would point to possible negligence on their part that would have triggered the tragedy.
After listening to them, the judge prohibited Padín from leaving Spain, withdrew his passport and imposed on him the obligation to appear every fortnight in court and remain located.
