The captain of the yacht Persefoni I reportedly has admitted to setting off fireworks that precipitated a hearth in Hydra, Greece in June.
In accordance with the Greek tv community Mega TV, the captain made the admission throughout a particular listening to final week. He and one crewmember have been in jail on arson fees since June 26. The remaining 11 crewmembers are free on bail. Mega TV signifies that the captain said, “Sure, we set off fireworks, I set them off,” on a rock close to the seashore. The 176-foot (53.8-meter) constitution yacht was at anchor a brief distance away.
A number of extra Greek media report that the captain testified he bought the fireworks to shock the constitution friends. The identical reviews additionally state that the captain mentioned not one of the crew was concerned, and that one of many fireworks he set off fell onto an island slope.
The testimony by the captain of the yacht Persefoni I seems to verify what a prosecutor beforehand claimed. That prosecutor says firefighters found remnants of flares or fireworks on the web site of the hearth. Moreover, the captain’s testimony corroborates what the first charterer has beforehand mentioned. Daniyar Abulgazin, certainly one of Kazakhstan’s wealthiest people, launched a press release on June 30 confirming the constitution and denying involvement within the hearth. “Neither I nor my friends requested the crew of the yacht or every other third events to take any actions that might result in a hearth,” he says.
The fireplace occurred throughout the night of June 21. Eyewitnesses knowledgeable the Hydra Port Authority that they noticed fireworks simply earlier than flames broke out in Hydra’s solely pine forest. Arson-unit investigators for the Hydra Fireplace Brigade arrested the captain and crew of the yacht Persefoni I primarily based on these accounts on June 22. They appeared earlier than a decide in a Piraeus court docket on June 26, all denying any wrongdoing. Days later, prosecutors moreover charged the eight Kazakh constitution friends with complicity in arson. Nonetheless, these friends departed Greece, with permission, on June 22.
Though fireworks are authorized in Greece, they’re prohibited from use throughout the summer time due to the danger of fireplace. Penalties for deliberate arson and arson associated to negligence embody jail sentences as much as 20 years. They’ll carry fines as much as €200,000, too.
We reached out to Persefoni I’s administration firm, Salaminia Yachting, for commentary. Nobody responded by press time. Nonetheless, in June, a spokesperson issued a press release to the Athens Information Company. In it, the corporate says it has “absolute confidence within the integrity and sincerity of the crew members.”