- Title: Hungary cruise captain 'did not make a mistake' - lawyer
- Date: 1st June 2019
- Summary: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (JUNE 1, 2019) (REUTERS) DEFENCE LAWYERS OF UKRAINIAN CAPTAIN OF CRUISE SHIP GABOR ELO AND BALAZS M TOTH WALKING INTO COURT BUILDING COURT SIGN HUNGARIAN AND EU FLAGS ON FACADE LAWYERS COMING OUT OF BUILDING JOURNALISTS GATHERED OUTSIDE COURT (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) DEFENCE LAWYER, GABOR ELO, SAYING: "The prosecution has initiated the arrest procedure for our defendant. We are debating the conditions for this. We continue to debate that our client had not made a mistake in the situation, as we said in our written statement yesterday. In our view the "sound suspicion" is not the case here. The one thing that motivated prosecutors to keep him in custody was making sure he was present during the proceedings. The prosecution deems detention necessary only because he is a Ukrainian citizen." ELO SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) DEFENCE LAWYER, GABOR ELO, SAYING: "The essence of our defence is that he had not made a navigation mistake. Obviously, he gave a detailed statement as a witness earlier and he maintains that now too. In my view there is a lot of data missing from this procedure in order to establish who had made a mistake and to what extent." ELO SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) DEFENCE LAWYER, GABOR ELO, SAYING: "Today again our client expressed his sympathies and condolences for the victims, and he is very sorry that he was part of such an accident in which so many people died and so many went missing. We as defence would like to join this and express our condolences to the relatives and everyone who is affected by it." ELO WALKING AWAY EXTERIOR OF COURT BUILDING HUNGARIAN AND EU FLAGS ON FACADE
- Embargoed: 15th June 2019 12:10
- Keywords: Budapest Hungary boat accident victims South Koreans court lawyer statement
- Location: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
- City: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
- Country: Hungary
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Sea Accidents
- Reuters ID: LVA001AHIBOSN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The captain of a passenger cruiser that collided with a pleasure boat that capsized on the Danube, killing South Korean tourists on board, is due to appear in court in Budapest on Saturday (June 1).
The Ukrainian captain was taken into custody by Hungarian police on Thursday (May 30). He denies having broken any rules or committing a criminal office.
Prosecutors will decide whether to extend the period for which the 64-year-old captain can be detained.
It is so far unclear what caused the accident, in which the 440-foot (135-meter) cruise ship hit and sank the smaller pleasure boat on Wednesday (May 29) night.
Twenty-eight people are feared dead in the accident.
(Production: Fedja Grulovic, Kriszta Fenyo, Akshata Rao) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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