(BV / 24-11-09) Parents of the Spanish couple disappeared last Thursday in the Red Sea have asked the President of the Government to intercede for them with the Egyptian authorities.

Zapatero received Israel Pérez and María Lourdes González family in the hotel where he stays in the Egyptian capital, where parents went from Sharm el Sheikh.

Anastasio Pérez, Apolonia Muñoz and Pedro González and Concepción Villarrolla, Israel and María Lourdes’ parents, are intended to fly tonight from Sharm el Sheikh, where their son and daughter disappeared, to Cairo.

Their interview finished at 8.30 am (6.30 GMT). “We have asked Zapatero to intercede for us with Egyptian authorities to attend business”, Pedro González Camacho (María Lourdes’ father) said to Efe.

The ship where the couple is believed to be, is 1,300 m. deep, in front of Sharm el Sheikh, according to Jorge Sánchez, one of the couple's dive mates, and his father Javier Sánchez, owner of a diving company.

 

After listening to their story, the families have assumed the idea that they have been thinking of since they arrived to Egypt last weekend: the boat in which they were travelling has become their tomb.

“They are 1,300 m. deep and cannot be rescued”, as Pedro González said. Two days ago, Israel and María Lourdes’ parents wanted that Spanish Government helped them to fleet a frigate to locate and rescue the corps. Today, they assure that what they want is that “who has to pay for this, pay it” Pedro González said.

“We won’t have our children, but we want to do something for this not to be repeated”, Concepción Villaroya (María Lourdes’ mother) assured. Apolonia Muñoz, Israel’s mother, insists on the same issue “We want our children to be the last ones!”

On the other hand, the consular representative of the Spanish Embassy in Cairo has denied the statements of the representative of the Ministry of Tourism en the South region in the Sinai, Abdel Fatah al Ali, who had assured that yesterday tracking tasks continued.

According to the consular representative, who decided not to be identified, tracking tasks stopped the day before yesterday afternoon and are still stopped while authorities decide the convenience of resume or not the search.

Israel and María Lourdes’ parents spend the whole day yesterday making arrangements to achieve a copy of the complaint and another of the statements of the Egyptian prosecutor, both of those they have done today and of the ones the survival made last Friday.

These are the papers needed in Spain to certify the disappearance of their children, a previous step to confirm the death, and also to start any legal action or to claim insurance.

Parents are exhausted but calm and all of them agree that their experience with Egyptian authorities has been “disastrous”. “The building of the prosecution was subhuman and filthy”, Pedro González complained vehemently They say that the offices were dirty, the chairs broken and dirty, and that if it were not for the Spanish consular representative and the delegate of the Embassy in Sharm el Sheikh, they would not have got a thing.

On his side, the representative of the Spanish mission recognized yesterday the lack of means Egyptian authorities suffer, but he wanted to highlight that most of the civil servants the families have talked to the three days in Sharm el Sheikh have tried to do everything they could.