PARIS: A French court Tuesday rejected an appeal by families of victims of a plane crash at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh for the civil case to be heard under United States jurisdiction. The accident on January 3, 2004 claimed 148 lives, including those of 134 French passengers, when a chartered Boeing 737-300 crashed into the sea near Sharm El-Sheikh shortly after takeoff. The court, against the opinion of the prosecuting authority (representing the French justice authorities), ruled that the victims could not argue that the tribunal in charge of the case was not competent to hear it, said Gerard Montigny, a spokesman for the victims lawyers. Thus the entire case would be heard in France unless the parties filed a challenge. The parties have 15 days in which to appeal the ruling by the court in Bobigny near Paris. The victims attorneys had based their case on a U.S. legal procedure known as discovery procedure, which has no equivalent in French law. This would oblige four U.S. companies involved to produce documents which might be required by the courts, in order to establish responsibility in a civil case. The four companies concerned are the plane maker Boeing, IFLC the owner of the plane, Parker Hannifin, maker of hydraulic equipment and electronic equipment manufacturer Honeywell. Marc Cherney, head of the group defending the interests of the victims families, said last month the financial compensation that could be awarded by American courts could be as much as 20 to 30 times higher than in France. AFP
French court rules Egyptian crash case must be heard in France
