The Tangiers Court of Appeals today upheld the conviction of Francisco Reinaldo, captain of the ship “Price,” in which 42 Jews lost their lives in January 1961 when the vessel sank off the Moroccan coast.
Reinaldo was found guilty by a lower court and sentenced to four years and two months’ imprisonment on charges of manslaughter through negligence; The Appeals Court, composed entirely of Moslem judges, had earlier upheld the convictions of two other members of the ship’s crew, identified as Sanchez and Castroman, who were sentenced to one year each.
Reinaldo, who admitted that he had abandoned the ship when it began to sink, claimed that the ship went down within a few minutes after a sudden gale hit the vessel, flooding its hull. He was defended by a Jewish attorney, M. Zaoui.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
