Three fishermen are on trial for the alleged manslaughter of two people after causing a collision between two boats near Um Al Subban Island, off the coast of Budaiya.
On Christmas Day last year, seafarers Ali Shaikh-Hasan and Abdali Al Abed were tragically killed at sea in the western area of Bahrain’s territorial waters.
Following the accident, the now-suspects pulled the Bahraini victims’ boat to Malkiya Beach, where one of the corpses was found, while search and rescue operations found the other that had floated to Budaiya Beach.
The defendants appeared before the Lower Criminal Court, where they face charges of being responsible for the deaths due to neglect, having allegedly sailed the boat in the early morning without turning on the headlights.
Prosecutors alleged that one of the defendants was under the influence of narcotics, namely Lyrica (pregabalin), and he was charged with possessing the drug for recreational purposes.
The Bahraini boat owner was charged with not providing safety equipment on board and not fitting the boat with an automatic identification system (AIS).
Two Indian defendants were furthermore charged with not renewing their residence permit. All three were also charged with using an environmentally-destructive fishing method known as ‘trawling’.
An investigation by the Transportation and Telecommunications Ministry found that it was difficult to determine which of the two parties were responsible for the accident, the court heard.
The report, carried out by the Maritime Safety and Environmental Protection Directorate concluded that since it was not possible to know for sure who was at fault, the responsibility was shared by both parties.
“The defendants didn’t fit the ship with safety equipment like a fire extinguisher, life jackets, a first-aid kit on board, and didn’t turn on sea lights to avoid collisions,” a prosecutor stated in the trial.
On the day of the incident the Coastguard received a notification at 6.53am that two boats had collided near Um Al Subban Island, nicknamed Al Mohammediya, near Budaiya and Jida Island.
After the accident, the three defendants were transferred to hospital to be treated for their injuries.
Mr Shaikh-Hasan, left, and Mr Al Abed who died in the collision at sea
Aged 61 and 55, Mr Shaikh-Hasan, from Karzakan, and Mr Al Abed, from Manama, were both buried the day after the collision. They left behind three children each.
The Bahraini defendant denied the charges before the judge, and his lawyer asked the court to let him out on bail since he had a wife and a young three-year-old child.
Meanwhile, the attorney representing the heirs of one of the victims lodged a request to be allowed to sue the defendants in Civil Court.
The hearing was adjourned to April 21, when an interpreter will be present to translate the proceedings for the Indian defendants, and relay their responses to the judge.
Maritime law in Bahrain requires small boats to be fitted with an AIS, a tracking device for vessels, which is to be on at all times.
As per this legislation, the vessels are required to be fitted with ‘a wireless device that sends and receives signals, provided by the Interior Ministry’, and only jet skis are permitted to sail without one.
Um Al Subban Island
The boat’s information, including its identity, location, route and speed, are transmitted to Interior Ministry’s marine operations headquarters.
Meanwhile, trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net, that is heavily weighted to keep it on the seafloor, through the water behind one or more boats.
The practice often damages the sea floor, destroys populations of baby fish and turtles and severely reduces marine life’s ability to reproduce.
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