Four Costa Concordia crewmembers and a company official were sentenced to jail in Italy on Saturday for their part in last year’s cruise ship disaster that killed 32 people, leaving only the boat’s captain still on trial.
The five received sentences of between 18 months and 34 months for multiple manslaughter, negligence and shipwreck — relatively short terms for the crimes, in exchange for pleading guilty.
None of the five are likely to be jailed as the sentences of under two years were suspended and the longer ones may be replaced with house arrest or community service, lawyers said.
“I think that the sentences are not enough,” said Robert Fehrer, 28, whose brother Szandor, a violinist, died in the disaster. “It feels quite hard to face this, with the fact that I lost my brother.”
“I don’t think that justice was done,” said Adam Csepi, a 24-year-old dancer whose spine was damaged in the accident. “I was dancing since I was a child. I wanted it to be my career. This is not going to bring my life back. Even 20 years [jail] would not bring my career back, but they do deserve more than this.”
Lawyers for the victims decried the verdicts as “shameful” and said they might appeal to Italy’s appeals court to overturn the plea bargains that allowed reduced sentences in return for guilty pleas.
“The plea bargains are unacceptable, they shouldn’t have been proposed or accepted. These sentences are ridiculous in the face of 32 dead,” said Gabriele dalle Luche, who represents a group of Russian passengers, saying he would consider an appeal.
The disaster occurred when the huge cruise liner hit a rock as it sailed close to the picturesque island of Giglio, prompting a chaotic evacuation of more than 4,000 passengers and crew.
Costa Cruises, a unit of Carnival Corp, avoided a criminal trial by agreeing to pay a 1 million euro (US$1.31 million) fine in April, but victims are pursuing damages in a civil case.
Captain Francesco Schettino, 52, remains on trial for manslaughter and causing the loss of his ship. He is also seeking a plea bargain to reduce a possible jail sentence.
The court gave the crisis coordinator for vessel owner Costa Cruises, Roberto Ferrarini, the lengthiest sentence of two years, 10 months, followed by cabin services manager Manrico Giampedroni who was given two-and-a-half years.
Three others including First Officer Ciro Ambrosio were given suspended sentences of under two years.
Short penalties for non-violent crimes are routinely suspended under Italian law.
On Wednesday, Schettino’s lawyers offered to accept a sentence of three years, five months in return for a guilty plea. A previous offer to serve three years, four months was rejected in May and he risks a much heftier sentence if no plea bargain is agreed. Hearings resume in September.
The captain is accused of abandoning ship before all crew and passengers had been rescued. A coastguard’s angry phone order to him — “Get back on board, damn it!” — became a catchphrase in Italy after the accident.
His lawyers say he prevented a worse disaster by steering the 290m vessel into shallow waters after the impact and that he was thrown overboard due to the angle of the leaning ship, which still lies rusting off the island.
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS