An Egyptian appeals court on Sunday said it lacks jurisdiction to look into the Suez Canal Authority’s demands to uphold financial claims that led to the seizure of the massive Ever Given ship after it blocked the waterway in March.

The authority and the ship’s owner are in dispute as to whose fault it was that the ship ran aground in the canal linking the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea – and how much compensation should be paid.

The appeals chamber of the Ismailia Economic Court referred the case to a lower court to decide on the legality of the seizure of the Ever Given until the settlement of compensation claim between the the Suez Canal Authority and Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., the ship’s Japanese owner, according to Hazem Barakat, a lawyer representing the vessel’s owner.

Adolphus Mawolo reports.