Pinoy seaman pleads not guilty in Norway trial

BERGEN, Norway (AFP) – The Filipino officer of a Norwegian tanker that collided with a French trawler off the coast of Brittany in August, killing four fisherman, pleaded not guilty on the opening day of his trial on Monday.

Ronnie Zape, the 39-year-old duty officer of the Bow Eagle, has been charged with failing to attempt to save the fishing boat’s crew and faces a maximum sentence of six years in prison in Norway.

Zape was in command when the 170-meter (560-foot) Bow Eagle crashed into the 26-meter Cistude off France’s Atlantic coast, killing four of the seven fishermen on board.

After the Bow Eagle steamed away from the scene without initiating any rescue procedures, the three survivors spent more than eight hours in the water before being rescued.

Zape’s Norwegian lawyer, Jostein Alvheim, quoted by Norwegian news agency NTB, stressed Monday that the court would have to prove that Zape acted intentionally when he sailed away from the scene, a charge the Filipino has rejected.

Zape and a young Filipino sailor who was also on the bridge at the time of the accident allegedly initially agreed to keep silent about the collision because, they argued, they thought they had only grazed the Cistude.

But the sailor, filled with remorse, defied Zape’s orders to keep mum and told the truth to the second-in-command, who later informed authorities of the ship’s involvement in the accident.

Zape is being tried in Norway because the accident occurred in international waters and the Bow Eagle is a Norwegian-flagged ship, owned by the Odfjell shipping group.

Two of the three survivors, including the captain of the Cistude Jean-Yves Barbeau, are expected to testify before the court on Wednesday. The verdict is expected on Thursday.