المحكمة فقالت في حيثيات حكمها: «ننوه إلى أن بشاعة وفظاعة ما أثاره المتهمان من جرم واستهانتهما واستخفافهما بأقدار ومصائر الناس، وما سببه من حزن وألم خيّم على مملكتنا الحبيبة، وبقاع عدة في الأرض، لا يدع لهذه المحكمة المجال لإعمال أي قسط من الرأفة، وهو ما تقضي معه المحكمة بالحد الأقصى لعقوبة الجريمة الأشد، وهي القتل الخطأ بظروفه المشددة، وفق ما ورد بأحكام المادة 243 من قانون العقوبات».
الوسط – ٢٤ مايو ٢٠٠٧

The Court notes the horror and brutality of the crime perpetrated by the two defendants and their complete disregard and contempt for the fate and destiny of the people and what they caused in grief and bereavement within and without our beloved kingdom which does not allow this Court any leeway for clemency and necessitates the application of the maximum penalty for the crime – which is the causing of wrongful death under duress, according to article 243 of the Penal Code.

I’m not sure that this is enough. The criminal is out on only BD10,000 bail which is a minuscule amount considering the committed crime, and of course he will have the legal right to appeal the verdict. There are; however, civil proceedings brought against him by the survivors and the families of of he dead which I hope will ensure that this sort of gross negligence will not happen again in the future.

What is to be learnt from this experience though?

For one thing, don’t cut safety corners just for the sake of making the country appear that it is bringing in investment. That – as this case has proven – is rather short sighted and futile.

Another thing is the culpability of the government agencies who readily gave the Al-Dana operators the various licenses without any regard to ensure the safety of the vessel and physically follow-up to ensure that safety standards were respected and that its sailors are sufficiently capable of running the boat before final approvals are given.

The departments and ministries involved in the licensing and over-seeing this venture should at least be censured so that internal processes get overhauled to ensure that no shortcut is readily utilised to potentially cause loss or disruption of life in the future.

Why the rulings did not censure the government departments involved is probably due to the workings of the Court system and how the law actually works, it was probably not within its mandate to do so. Therefore it is vitally important that the parliament does its job by creating its own investigative committee to now investigate the shortcomings of those departments and put in legislation or any other over-sight tools to ensure that lessons learnt are put in place and enacted.

The government itself of course should have mounted its own investigation into these shortcomings immediately this disaster happened; if it had, then it should be transparent about it and let us know what steps have been taken and if it has removed those responsible for this negligence on the government’s part from their positions or whatever other remedial actions it has taken.

Once again I offer my heart felt condolences to the bereaved and I understand how they must feel that this ruling will not bring their loved ones back, nor will it suffice to ameliorate their pain felt since the disaster and for the rest of their own lives. I urge them to continue with a class-action law suit against both the owners of the dhow-of-death as well as the government for its culpability in this affair by their gross negligence and flouting of laws and safety standards.