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Ship captain who failed to help MS Bulgaria to face trial Nov 21

The trial versus captain of the Arbat freighter Yuri Tuchin, who refused to help the passengers from the sunken motorboat Bulgaria will begin on November 21

KAZAN, November 10 (Itar-Tass) —— The trial versus captain of the Arbat freighter Yuri Tuchin, who refused to help the passengers from the sunken motorboat Bulgaria will begin on November 21, an administrator of the Kama-Ust District Court Albert Salimov told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

“The district court will have a session at 10 a.m. Moscow time on November 21 over the criminal case against captain of the Arbat freighter Yuri Tuchin. The criminal case is high-profile, there will be many participants in the trial, therefore, we decided to have a court session not at the courtroom, which will lack seats, but at the district house of culture,” Salimov said.

Tuchin is accused of negligence to help people in trouble. This article envisages up to two years in prison.

The detectives found out that on July 10, 2011 the captain of the Arbat freighter, which was en route along the Kuibyshev dam lake on the Volga River, upon noticing people in trouble on the life rafts at the MS Bulgaria wreckage site, did not take the measures needed for their salvation, though there was no threat for the Arbat freighter and its crew. So, the Inland Water Transport Code was violated.

The passenger motorboat Bulgaria, which was built in 1955 in Czechoslovakia, sank on the Kuibyshevskoye dam lake near the village of Syukeyevo in the Kama-Ust district of Tatarstan on July 10. The MS Bulgaria had 201 people onboard and 79 people were saved. Some 122 people, including 28 children, died in the wreckage.