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Bugaled Breizh: Royal Navy rejects responsibility, families cry lies

2021-10-12T18:38:56.079Z


The testimony of Andrew Coles, former commander of the British attack submarine the Turbulent, was eagerly awaited.


The families cry lies: the commander of a British Royal Navy submarine suspected of having caused the murderous sinking of the Breton trawler Bugaled Breizh on Tuesday, October 12, rejected all responsibility for the unexplained tragedy since 2004.

Read also Shipwreck of the Bugaled Breizh in 2004: was the Breton trawler sunk by a submarine?

With the long-awaited testimony of the former commander of the submarine

Turbulent

before the High Court in London, Andrew Coles, the families of the five sailors killed in the sinking hoped to get closer to the truth and finally find out what happened on the 15th. January 2004, when their loved ones were swept away in less than a minute. From the start, families have believed that the trawler fishing off Cornwall (southwest England) was sunk by a submarine caught in its nets. But questioned for about an hour, Andrew Coles, who is no longer in the Royal Navy, rejected any involvement of his nuclear attack submarine. “

We weren't involved at all. We were docked

'at Devonport (southwest of theEngland) "

January 15

, 2004, he said.

According to him, the

Turbulent

was to take part in NATO exercises planned in the area from January 16, but was unable to do so due to damage. The submarine, which had been parked for maintenance in Devonport since the previous November, did not resume navigation until Monday, January 19. At the end of the hearing, this testimony was seriously questioned by the families of the victims. “

It doesn't hold water. There are still plenty of elements that have not been clarified,

”regretted Thierry Lemétayer, the son of a victim, in front of the press. "

This is where we see that justice is not moving forward

." "

There was no moment of truth today,

" denounced his lawyer, Dominique Tricaud. "

It is not today that he has chosen to make peace with his conscience

", he added of Andrew Coles:"

the fact that the

Bugaled Breizh

was sunk by a submarine is a certainty acquired by all serious people

”.

The Turbulent's responsibility deemed "unthinkable"

Former commander Andrew Coles also referred to a meeting with Thierry Lemétayer several years ago during the screening of a documentary on the affair in a town in Cornwall. "

I did my best with my very bad French to assure him that I had nothing to do with it and that the

Turbulent

was not the cause of the sad sinking of the

Bugaled Breizh", said himself. he remembered. "

I was able to allude to the fact that if a submarine had hooked it, that could have been a cause, but not that it was

," he added.

Earlier Tuesday, two other senior Royal Navy officers assured that the

Turbulent

was docked on the day of the sinking. Official communications in support, one of them, Commander Simmonds, a British Navy Underwater Operations Officer, reiterated that only three submarines were at sea when the

Bugaled Breizh

sank (l 'German

U22

, Dutch

Dolfijn

and

Briton

Torbay

). He ruled out that one of them could have been in the immediate vicinity of the trawler. He also judged "

unthinkable

" that an allied military submarine could have been in the zone assigned to NATO exercises without having signaled its presence.

When the track of a US Navy submarine was mentioned in 2016, the United States had refuted.

Equally "

unthinkable

", according to the officer, would be falsifying a submarine's logbook or documents relating to its movements: this would constitute a "

serious breach

" of a nature to "

erode confidence

" between allied countries. .

British Navy exercises were also scheduled on the day of the tragedy - without submarines, according to Daniel Simmonds.

Read alsoBugaled Breizh: the hypotheses of the sinking

In France, a long legal procedure, closed in 2016, could not decide between the hypothesis of a submarine and that of a fishing accident.

Questioned Monday, the Dutch navy had excluded any involvement of the submarine

Dolfijn

, ensuring that it was sailing on the surface when the accident occurred.

"

We have two navies who lie, we have two governments who lie,

" lamented Dominique Tricaud.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-10-12

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