Mosul tourist island owners arrested, ferry victims found 20 km downstream
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi authorities announced the arrest of the owners of a tourist island in the Tigris River in Mosul which witnessed the deaths of about a hundred people – many of whom were women and children – in the tragic sinking of a ferry carrying five times its prescribed load.
According to various accounts, roughly 60 - 85 people are still missing, two of whom were announced on Saturday to have been found in the river by residents of the town of Hamam al-Alil, over 20 km downstream.
Sources in Mosul told Kurdistan 24 on Saturday that efforts to locate the bodies have been hampered due to sustained heavy rains and a shortage of trained divers. Other cities in Iraq and also Turkey have sent experienced divers to participate in the search, but local officials say their number is still insufficient for the task.
The spokesman for Joint Operations Command, Yahya Rasool, said in a statement that the main owners of Umm Rabaen Island, who managed the ferry when the accident happened on March 21, were arrested in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Rasool added that Kurdish security forces arrested the two men who were in Erbil after fleeing Mosul in the wake of the incident.
Earlier in the week, the Iraqi Integrity Commission carried out a campaign of arrests against a number of public employees accused of corruption in Mosul, the rebuilding of which has lagged even two years after its liberation from the Islamic State, local sources told Kurdistan 24.
The move came amid growing public discontent in the city following the tragedy, with mass calls for those responsible to be held accountable for the deaths.
On Sunday, the Iraqi Parliament sacked Nineveh Governor Nawfal al-Akub and his deputies by a majority vote after Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi’s recent request to remove Akub and his deputies for “the negligence and ignorance evident in the performance of their duty and responsibility.”
