Survivors of luxury liner slam captain during hearing

GROSSETO: Survivors of the Costa Concordia cruise liner tragedy voiced anger at the ship’s captain at a key court hearing as investigators unveiled a new accusation of environmental damage.

Captain Francesco Sch ettino and eight others, including three executives from ship owner Costa Crociere, are under investigation for the Jan 13 disaster which claimed 32 lives although no-one has yet been formally charged.

To accommodate hundreds of lawyers and survivors, the special hearing was held in a theatre in the Tuscan town of Grosseto near Giglio island where the luxury liner crashed with 4,229 people from dozens of countries on board.

Schettino, who is under house arrest at his home near Naples, was not attending because his lawyer said he was concerned for his safety.

“It’s just as well that Schettino is not coming,” survivor Sergio Amarotto said as he entered the closed-door hearing, which was barred to media.

“He told one lie after another to try and cover up what he had done.”

Leaks from the investigation published by Italian newspapers in recent days paint an unflattering portrait of Schettino, who is accused of delaying the evacuation and then abandoning ship before all passengers had been rescued.

Investigators have also accused the suspects of manslaughter and of failing to inform the authorities and on Saturday, they unveiled a new suspected infringement of a law against “destruction of habitat” in nature reserves.

But Schettino’s lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, defended his client’s claim that he slipped onto a lifeboat saying: “He did not leave the ship voluntarily.”

He also rejected Costa Crociere’s claim that it was misled by Schettino saying it “was constantly and completely informed of what was happening”.

The hearing ordered experts to conduct analysis of data from the ship’s “black box” and other equipment on board and said these findings would be presented at the next scheduled pre-trial hearing on July 21.