Concordia captain gets 16 years’ jail
GROSSETO: Francesco Schettino, ridiculed in the world media as Italy’s “Captain Coward”, was on Wednesday handed a suspended 16-year prison sentence for his role in the Costa Concordia shipwreck, in which 32 people died.
Under Schettino’s command, the Concordia left its planned route on Jan 13, 2012, and steered close to the Italian island of Giglio, where it hit rocks and partially capsized. There were 4,229 people on board.
“In the name of the Italian people, the court ... declares Francesco Schettino guilty of the crimes ascribed to him,” Giovanni Puliatti, president of the court in Grosseto in central Italy, said reading out the verdict.
The 54-yearold Naples native was accused of multiple counts of manslaughter and other serious charges including negligence, causing a shipwreck, mis handling emergency procedures, lying to authorities about the seriousness of the accident and abandoning ship.
The court issued a lifetime ban on Schettino holding public office, stripped him of his captain rank for five years and ordered him to pay millions of euros in legal fees and damages to a long list of plaintiffs, including victims and Italian authorities, together with Concordia’s owners, Costa Crociere.
“We are not at all satisfied with the ruling,” defence lawyer Donato Laino told reporters, saying he planned an appeal.
He took particular issue with the court upholding the “insulting” charge of abandoning ship.
Schettino was nicknamed “Captain Coward” for jumping off the listing Concordia before all the passengers had been evacuated. He claimed to have inadvertently slipped into a life boat and to have helped rescue efforts from onshore.
The sole defendant in a trial that lasted almost 19 months, Schettino was not present as the ruling was read.
“His health is not good at the moment, and he is very tired,” Mr Laino said. “How could he have stood up and listened to such a verdict?”
Earlier, Schettino made a final plea for clemency, breaking into tears at one point and claiming to have been turned into a scapegoat and subjected to character assassination by the media.