Judge orders Eurocopter to apologise
Appellate Judge Kalpana Rawal, the chairperson of the inquiry team, ruled that Eurocopter violated the law by disseminating the report to third parties against the spirit of confidentiality. Photo/FILE
The supplier of the ill-fated chopper that crashed killing Internal Security Minister George Saitoti and five others was on Friday ordered to apologise to the government over the leakage of a confidential report purporting to show the cause of the accident.
The commission inquiring into to the crash on Friday overruled the report by Eurocopter as a “prejudicial” attempt aimed at swaying public opinion and the verdict of the commission.
Appellate Judge Kalpana Rawal, the chairperson of the inquiry team, ruled that Eurocopter violated the law by disseminating the report to third parties against the spirit of confidentiality.
The judge also ordered The Standard and The Star newspapers, which published the report, to apologise to the State.
“The two media houses should come up with disclosure of their respective source, and own up to the impropriety of their publications,” the ruling read by Major Gen (rtd) Harold Tangai, a commissioner, said.
Lawyers for the State and crash victims had initially demanded that Eurocopter be excluded from the proceedings. Hearings will resume on September 17 at the KICC.
