18-year jail for Tunisian over migrant boat disaster
CATANIA, Sicily: A Tunisian man accused of being the captain of a migrant boat that sank killing almost 700 people was found guilty of multiple manslaughter and peoplesmuggling on Tuesday and sentenced to 18 years in jail.
Only 28 people survived the disaster in April last year, when the small fishing boat capsized off the coast of Libya, with hundreds trapped in the hold.
Mohammed Ali Malek, 28, was one of those rescued and denied being the captain, saying he had paid for passage like everyone else, but a court in the city of Catania dismissed his defence.
The court also sentenced 26-yearold Syrian Mahmud Bikhit to five years in prison on charges of peoplesmuggling. Survivors said Bikhit had been Malek’s cabin boy. He had denied any wrongdoing.
Both men were also handed fines of nine million euros ($9.5 million). Their lawyers said they would appeal the convictions. “We think we have some strong arguments and we will try and work on some of the weaker points of our defence,” said Massimo Ferrante, representing Malek.
Outrage over the incident prompted European Union leaders to bolster its own search-and-rescue mission in the Mediterranean days after the boat went down.
In the past three years, roughly half a million boat migrants have arrived on Italian shores and almost 12,000 have died in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Prosecutors had told the court that Malek mishandled the grossly overloaded fishing boat, which left from Darabli, Libya, carrying men, women and children from Algeria, Somalia, Egypt, Senegal, Zambia, Mali, Bangladesh and Ghana.
They say he caused the vessel to collide with a Portuguese merchant ship that was coming to its aid.
As passengers rushed away from the side of the boat which had struck the ship, it capsized and sank within minutes.