Court acquits Danish Maritime Authority in Scandinavian Star case

The Danish Maritime Authority will not pay compensation in a case brought by survivors and relatives of victims of the 1990 fire on the ferry Scandinavian Star, the district court in Næstved ruled. Forty-seven plaintiffs had sought 450,000 Danish kroner each for violation of their human rights, arguing that the authority failed to conduct a port state control inspection of the vessel before it began carrying passengers between Denmark and Norway in April 1990. The court found no evidence that the authority knew or should have known that conditions aboard the ship posed an immediate and concrete risk to life, according to the judgment. The fire, which killed 159 people, was deliberately set, but no perpetrator has been identified.