The Badr Al-Islam Tragedy: A Landmark Wrongful-Death Case in the Red Sea

On 14 December 2014, the fishing vessel Badr Al-Islam sank after colliding with a Kuwaiti-flagged vessel near Jabal El-Zeit in the Red Sea. Twenty-eight fishermen were killed and thirteen others were injured.

For the families left behind, the aftermath of a maritime collision like this one is rarely just a legal question. It is a sudden loss of income for entire households, set against a legal process that can feel distant and difficult to access, particularly for fishing communities without ready means to pursue a claim against a much larger vessel and its owners.

Soliman Advocates assembled a team to represent the affected families on a pro bono basis, pursuing wrongful-death and personal-injury compensation claims arising from the collision on their behalf.

The matter proceeded as a maritime collision and wrongful-death claim, requiring the same rigor as any commercial casualty case — establishing the circumstances of the collision, the resulting deaths and injuries, and the basis for compensation — while working directly with the families throughout.

The result was a negotiated compensation settlement for the victims’ families. We present this matter not as a commercial success, but as representative of the firm’s pro bono commitment to fishing communities along the Egyptian coast — the same communities whose vessels and livelihoods intersect daily with the international shipping we advise on the other side of.

Prepared by: Maritime Collisions & Casualties Department – Soliman Advocates