A court in Venice will soon take a decision on the lawsuit filed by the crew of the Delphin Voyager, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Ruslan Demchenko has said.
As reported, on October 12 the Delphin Voyager cruise ship, sailing from Venice to Istanbul, entered the port of Piraeus in Greece. The Ukrainian Embassy in Greece reported that the operator company had been declared bankrupt and was refusing to fulfill its financial liabilities to the ship's crew, which included 171 Ukrainian citizens.
The owner of the ship is Greek Enterprises Shipping and Trading SA, and the operator was German Marine Trade Consulting Gmbh.
While commenting on the situation over the vessel, Demchenko noted that according to the ship's captain, representatives of the company operating the ship, its owner and the administrator of the bankruptcy process would meet in Hamburg, Germany, in the afternoon on Monday, November 1, 2010, to agree the payment of salaries to the crewmembers, the procedure for the release of the vessel from arrest and they day of the possible towing of the vessel from the port of Venice.
"According to reports received from the consulate general, a court in Venice may issue a respective ruling on the crew's lawsuit within the next two days," Demchenko said.
He said that Ukrainian diplomats were in constant contact with the crewmembers of the German ship Delphin Voyager, which was arrested in Venice in late October. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is continuing to monitor the situation.
