The International Committee of the Red Cross will use its good offices to ensure the welfare of the 10 Israeli crewmen arrested by the Egyptian authorities when the Israeli vessel “Bat Galim” was seized in the Suez Canal, the ICRC announced today.
A spokesman for the humanitarian organization said that the Egyptian Government will be informed of Israel’s complaint to the ICRC that the men are “being treated like criminals, on a trumped up charge.”
A representative of the Israeli legation at Berne, commenting on the “Bat Galim” incident, charged that these completely innocent men” had been thrown into a Cairo prison. Israel’s purpose in appealing to the Red Cross, he stressed, was to assure them humanitarian treatment during their incarceration.
(The Cairo newspaper “Al Gumhurriya” said today that 10 Israel seamen–the crew of the “Bat Galim”–will be tried before Egypt’s Supreme Military Tribunal. The Prosecutor General for the military regime, said no decision had yet been taken on action against the Israel crew and their interrogation continues.)
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