FLORENCE, ITALY – Former skipper Francesco Schettino was found guilty by a Grosseto court on Wednesday of charges related to the January 2012 Costa Concordia disaster off the Tuscan island of Giglio and sentenced to 16 years and one month in prison.
Prosecutors had requested Schettino be sent to jail for over 26 years for the disaster that killed 32 people after the Concordia crashed into rocks and capsized after sailing too close to Giglio.
The court also banned Schettino from commanding a ship for five years and banned him from holding public office indefinitely.
Schettino and his former employers Costa Criuses were also ordered to pay massive damages to a long list of civil plaintiffs, including Concordia passengers, central government, the civil protection department, the Tuscan regional government and the municipality of the Giglio. But the court rejected a prosecution request for Francesco Schettino to be arrested, saying there was no evidence to suggest he would seek to flee Italian justice.
In Italy, convictions are not considered definitive until the two-tier appeals system has been exhausted, so people sentenced at first-instance trials do not usually go to jail, expect in the case of violent crimes or when they is a risk of them becoming a fugitive.
The former commander was dubbed captain coward in the media for abandoning the ship before all his passengers were evacuated in Italy’s worst postwar maritime disaster. Hundreds of passengers were injured and Concordia also claimed the life of a Spanish diver who died while on the salvage operation, taking the total death toll to 33.
Schettino claims his image and actions have been distorted by investigators and the media. He wept as he made a statement to the court on Wednesday, saying part of him “also died” on January 13, 2012. (Ansa)