The First Section of the Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands will hold this Friday, February 7, from 09.30 am, the preliminary hearing of the trial against the man accused of skippering a boat that departed from Algeria bound for Ibiza in October last year. According to the indictment, the defendant would have guided the boat in which 18 people were traveling, exposing them to extreme conditions in a 24-hour crossing without any safety device. Finally, the boat was rescued in the port of Ibiza by Salvamento Marítimo and the Guardia Civil.
Request for six years of imprisonment
The prosecution accuses the accused of a crime against the rights of foreign citizens and requests a six-year prison sentence for him. The prosecution argues that the accused acted as skipper of the boat and endangered the lives of the occupants by transferring them in a patera without safety guarantees. The case is framed within the increase of irregular boat arrivals to the Balearic Islands in recent years, a phenomenon that has led to the reinforcement of surveillance and rescue operations in the area.
A high-risk trip
The journey from Algeria to Ibiza is estimated to take about 24 hours of navigation, a crossing that poses a great risk for migrants, who travel in precarious boats and with no guarantee of survival at sea. In this case, the intervention of Salvamento Marítimo prevented a greater tragedy. The pre-trial hearing will serve to determine the next steps in the judicial process and to define the responsibility of the accused in the facts.
