The German documentary film producer Jutta Rabe, who was involved with the autumn diving expedition to the wreck of the sunken passenger vessel, the Estonia, is continuing her fight against the international commission that looked into the disaster, in which more than 800 people were killed in 1994.

   

Rabe's Swedish lawyer Henning Witte told Helsingin Sanomat on Friday last week that Rabe plans to file criminal complaints against members of the commission in Finland, Sweden, and Estonia.

   

At the same time Rabe plans to file a complaint against Mona Sahlin, the Swedish minister responsible for issues linked with the Estonia sinking.

Rabe says that the commission

and Mona Sahlin are withholding information and protecting criminals. In the Friday edition of the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, she says that the members of the commission and the responsible ministers have deliberately withheld information that an explosion occurred on the Estonia shortly before it sank.

   

Members of the commission rejected claims made by Rabe and her American partner, millionaire Gregg Bemis Jr. after a series of dives to the wreck in August, that they had evidence of damage caused by an explosion.

   

According to Henning Witte, Rabe has further proof of an explosion. He says that samples taken by the divers from the sunken ship have been analysed in four different research institutes in the United States and Germany.

   

Rabe plans to submit the evidence to Swedish, Finnish, and Estonian prosecutors next week.

   

Witte also said that she is planning to file further complaints against three Swedish former ministers Carl Bildt, Ingvar Carlsson, and Ines Uusman. Bildt was Sweden's prime minister when the Estonia sank, Carlsson was his successor, and Uusman served as Minister of Transport in the aftermath of the sinking.

The head of the Swedish

accident investigation commission, Ann-Louise Eksborg says that she is looking at this latest move with suspicion. Speaking to the Swedish news agency TT, she characterised the August diving expedition as nonsense.

   

Meanwhile, Mona Sahlin did not want to comment on the issue in any way.

   

The passenger-car ferry Estonia sank in stormy weather in the Baltic Sea off the south coast of Finland on the night of September 27 1994, killing 852 people on board, most of whom were Swedish citizens. According to the final report of the international commission of inquiry, the disaster was caused by the failure of a faulty bow door visor which fell off, letting water onto the car deck.