– This cruise should never have been carried out, says Per Zimmer, defense attorney for the ship’s doctor. Six days have been set aside in Nord-Troms district court to find out whether the ship’s doctor and the captain are criminally responsible for handling the corona scandal on MS “Roald Amundsen” on 31 July 2020. Zimmer is clear in his speech on the first day of court: – This the expedition was doomed to failure, he says to news. He reasons that it is impossible to avoid cold symptoms and respiratory symptoms when sailing in the Arctic, where there are large temperature differences. The defender believes it is important that the court decides whether his client has been treated differently. And he asks where Hurtigruten’s and the authorities’ responsibility lies. And: should a sailing permit have been granted at all? Per Zimmer is the lawyer and defender of the ship’s doctor who is on trial. Photo: Lisa Rypeng / news – Responsibility should start at the top Hurtigruten has adopted a fine of one million kroner for the corona cruise. But no other individuals have been fined. The defender of the ship’s doctor thinks it is unfair that his client has been appointed as a scapegoat. – I notice that he is the only one who has been punished for this. As I see it, my client has actually been misled a bit. We also see that from the prosecutor’s introductory speech here. My client is not really mentioned with a single word, says Zimmer. The prosecutor confirms to news that in this case it is no longer significant what the management of the express route company knew and possibly should have done. They are protected by the corporate penalty that has been adopted. – Yes, and it is a concrete assessment. Now the company as such has received a corporate penalty of one million which they have adopted. There were three other individuals who had suspect status during the police investigation, but for these three the cases have been dropped due to the state of the evidence, says Jørn Bremnes. This causes the ship’s doctor’s defender to react. – This responsibility should start at the top. I cannot go into or say anything about how the police have handled this otherwise, I can only state that my client was punished and it is deeply unfair, says Zimmer. Public prosecutor and prosecutor Jørn Bremnes. Photo: Lisa Rypeng / news Needed oxygen The prosecutor emphasized what happened on July 29 and July 31, when the ship docked and the infection scandal was a fact. – We have to go back in time here, before we had a vaccine and protection against this disease, said prosecutor Jørn Bremnes in his introduction in Nord-Trom district court. He presented a series of e-mails showing the correspondence between those on the ship and management on land. This should prove that the captain and the ship’s doctor should have realized that there was a possible outbreak of infection on board. The e-mails were about the dialogue around sick employees. But also that the ship was told to speed up in order to get faster towards land. The documents also show that the first patients who are sent by taxi to hospital are so ill that they need oxygen and are admitted. Benedikte Sunde Jamth is the captain’s defender. Photo: Lisa Rypeng / news Poor coverage and hectic everyday life The captain’s defender, Benedikte Sunde Jamth pointed to an email from the ship’s doctor from the Philippines on July 30, which states that they had no cases of covid on board. – If you want to notify, you must have information. It is always easy to sit here on land two years later and assess in retrospect with the knowledge we have today, but we have to go back to that date and think about what we knew and should have understood then, says Sunde Jamth. She highlights three points of uncertainty in particular: What are the coverage conditions like in these northern areas. In which places do you have coverage. When do e-mails actually come in, when are they sent and received. What time emails are read. The captain will explain his duties on the bridge. How often does he read email on the bridge? Who was the primary source of information? Notified the group management For the first time, the general public heard the captain’s own description of what happened, when he explained himself in court. Here he documented that he notified the management of suspected infection on board on 29 July. This has also been previously told to news by the municipal superintendent in Hadsel and the ship’s doctor on the first voyage. It was the captain’s duty to inform the shipping company, which he also presented in the exchange of messages that he did. At 14:45 on 29 July, he writes to communications manager Rune Thomas Ege: “Hey, Stokmarkne’s doctor’s office will go out with corona infection at RA. One guest was infected two days after returning home. Will talk to Bent (Martini, jour.adm) here on board.” 1.5 hours later, he gets a reply: “I heard. Is in dialogue with Bent, XX and XX. We will take control!” In a press release that went out afterwards, there was nothing about proven infection in a patient who had traveled with MS “Roald Amundsen”. After this, the captain had no contact with the management, FHI or the infection control doctor. He says that he trusted what appeared in the press release, and the assurance from the ship’s doctor that there was no infection on board. Hurtigruten has previously stated that they thought the situation was under control, and therefore dropped the notification to the other passengers. In an internal e-mail that is presented, Bent Martini writes: “… We managed to avoid the infection control doctor in Stokmarknes mentioning us in his press release.” The captain is further grilled by the prosecutor, and tried to pressure him to admit that he had received e-mails that could indicate that there was a suspicion of covid-19 on board. – Repeatedly, the doctors concluded that there was no reason to suspect covid-19. These are professionals with one hundred percent trust. There was no reason to doubt the doctors. There was talk of picking up speed, but it didn’t amount to much in terms of time, said the captain. Communications manager Rune Thomas Ege says Hurtigruten has acknowledged several errors during the corona voyage. But they will not comment on individual matters. Photo: Hurtigruten – Has taken responsibility Hurtigruten, by communications manager Rune Thomas Ege tells news that they believe it is not right to comment on individual matters that come to light in the court case. – The police carried out a very thorough and comprehensive investigation over a period of almost two years, to which we actively contributed. The police’s investigation concluded that there is no basis for criticizing the company beyond what was the basis for the submission we received last winter. – We have been clear that we as a company made several mistakes. We have taken responsibility for that, and we have accepted the submission we were made, writes Ege in an e-mail. Wasn’t the ship’s doctor Defender Per Zimmer believes the ship’s doctor was employed to hold a dialogue with the Norwegian authorities, and to pass on symptoms. He never had the title of ship’s doctor, one of the Filipino doctors did. And this hierarchy is, according to Zimmer, particularly relevant. Because on a cruise ship, the command line is similar to the Armed Forces, where people have different roles. Therefore, the ship’s doctor “by virtue of his position” was not required to notify the Norwegian authorities of the suspicion, according to the defender. – My client cannot be held responsible here, says Zimmer. 69 municipalities affected The extensive outbreak of infection on board the MS “Roald Amundsen” became known far beyond Norway’s borders. Neither the captain nor the ship’s doctor, who were fined NOK 30 and NOK 40,000 respectively, accept the fine after the scandalous corona outbreak on Hurtigruten in the summer of 2020. The fines were given for failure to notify the Norwegian authorities. The ship’s doctor was also fined for shortcomings in the exercise of his profession as health personnel. He has lost his authorization as a doctor. The central thing will be what the management on land actually knew. And, who made the decision not to notify about an outbreak on board a cruise ship with several hundred people on board. Because at this time the country had just opened up again, and the news about the outbreak caused fear about Italian conditions in Norway. The outbreak affected 69 municipalities and caused the government to tighten the rules for the entire cruise industry. Later it became known that 71 people from 7 different counties were infected.
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Skipsleges’ defender believes the cruise should never have been carried out – news Troms and Finnmark
