Judge clears Guardia Civil in Las Palmas court

The judge investigating the collision between a Guardia Civil patrol boat and a raft carrying Moroccan immigrants has indicated that the fault was entirely due to the skipper of the small boat.

The raft sank last December near Lanzarote and footage from the Integral System of Exterior Vigilence (SIVE) video recorded from the Costa Teguise some 1,200 metres away as well as a thermal camera operated from the patrol boat and security film from the Hotel Oasis were used in the court to show what had occurred that night.

 Statements were taken from the survivors of the incident, with the aid of an interpreter, and they have now been returned to Morocco.

The Magistrate Angela Lopez-Yuste, said that the first corporal of the Guardia Civil steering the police launch was not responsible for the collision.  The accident was caused by the skipper of the immigrant’s boat making two turns to the right, and then letting go of the rudder so that the two boats crossed paths and there was no way to avoid the eventual collision which resulted in the death of 25 Moroccans and the disappearance of another six.