Fishing captain fined, Maltese owners cleared of breaching regulations

The captain of a fishing vessel detained in August has been fined €3,000 for failing to have the correct markings, whilst the vessel's Maltese owners have been cleared of a number of regulatory breaches after the prosecution failed to prove that the men were directors of the company that operated it.

Mario Azzopardi and Anthony Azzopardi had been arraigned under arrest in August, together with Tawfik Elnaggar, the Egyptian captain of the Hannibal 1.

During the men's arraignment, lawyer Joe Giglio had argued that the arrest of vessel and crew was an excessive measure in view of the alleged offences, which he said were mostly contraventional in nature.

The Maltese-flagged Hannibal 1 belongs to Hannibal Fishing Limited, itself a subsidiary of Azzopardi Fisheries, but the criminal charges were made against the individual directors, in their private capacity.

“From the evidence provided by the prosecution, Mario and Anthony Azzopardi, charged as they are in their personal capacity, can never be found guilty of the charges precisely because these are charges that should be made against them, not as individuals, but as directors of the company owning the vessel.”

The court noted that the letter to prosecute, issued by the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture stated that “the offences had taken place by use of the vessel Hannibal 1...For the period of time in questions, the vessel had been property of the commercial enterprise Hannibal Fishing Ltd.”

The magistrate cleared the Azzopardis of the charges, pointing out that no representative from the Registry of Company had been summoned to exhibit a copy of the memorandum and articles of association of Hannibal Fishing Limited in order to establish the identity of the company's directors.

Pointedly, the court said it expected better coordination between the police and the Fisheries Department in future cases “rather than expecting the court to attempt to do the work they were meant to do.”

"The department should not expect the police to be experts in the subject of fishing regulations, especially when it had employees who specialise in this subject," magistrate Mifsud said, adding that the department should see that the necessary inspections took place before it granted or renewed a vessel's fishing licence and not afterwards.

The court observed that at the time of his arrest, Elnaggar had already applied for the renewal of his licence and this was actually being processed by the Department of Fisheries.

Elnaggar's name featured on the crew list and he had been previously acknowledged as the ship's captain, but at the time of the vessel's arrest, the person in command of the fishing vessel at the time had failed to produce a licence. The court held that this was a breach of the legal requirements.

Elnaggar was also found guilty of failing to ensure the vessel carried the correct identification markings, for which he was fined €3,000. He was however, declared not guilty of having furnished the authorities with falsified documents.

The court ordered the immediate release of the vessel and its catch, both of which had been seized by the authorities.