site.btaCivil Lawsuit for Sunken Boat Ilinden Starts

132 POLITICS - SHIP ILINDEN - TRIAL

Civil Lawsuit
for Sunken Boat Ilinden
Starts


Sofia, November 27 (BTA) - The Sofia District Court started
hearing a civil lawsuit filed by the families of 15 Bulgarian
tourists who drowned when the boat Ilinden sank into Lake Ohrid,
Macedonia, on September 5, 2009.

More than 50 Bulgarians were aboard the ship bound for the St
Naum Monastery. The ship's owner and skipper, Sotir Filevski,
and the technical expert Branko Baic were sentenced to one year
in prison each in Macedonia.

In Sofia the victims' families have lodged a claim for 10.5
million leva against the Allianz Versicherung and Germanischer
Lloyd insurance companies which insureed the ship despite
structural changes which ultimately caused its sinking. The
relatives' lawyers hold that the boat was carrying 53
passengers, although it could safely carry only 35.

On Thursday the court questioned as witnesses 14 relatives of
the victims, who explained what they had been through after the
tragedy. The court gave the parties to the lawsuit 20 days to
familiarize themselves with the evidence and to set any
additional tasks to the technical expert examination. LI/DD