A court on Wednesday convicted the Costa Concordia’s commander of the manslaughter deaths of 32 people in the cruise liner’s capsizing off the Italian coast and sentenced him to about 16 years in prison, blaming him for causing the 2012 shipwreck and for doing what sea captains should never do — abandoning ship while passengers and crew were still aboard.
Francesco Schettino’s total prison term broke down this way: 10 years for the deaths of 32 passengers and crew members; five years for causing the shipwreck when he steered too close to Giglio Island, smashing into a rocky reef; one year for abandoning the luxury vessel when hundreds of people were still aboard and one month for giving false information to maritime authorities about the gravity of the collision, which prosecutors said delayed the arrival of help.
The punishment, handed down by a three-judge panel, was 10 years short of what prosecutors had sought, and left some survivors and victims’ relatives wondering if justice was done.
“Thirty-two dead. That’s about six months for every person who died,” said Anne Decre, a Frenchwoman who managed to get aboard a lifeboat before the Concordia’s listing made it impossible to lower other lifeboats.
She was one of few survivors who came to court to hear the verdict.
She is pressing for better safety standards for cruise ships, and like other survivors, recalled how many passengers did not receive emergency drill practice after starting the Mediterranean cruise.
Keven Rebello’s brother, Russel Rebello, was a ship waiter who stayed aboard to lower the last of the lifeboats. His body was found only after the Costa Concordia was towed from Giglio Island, after the ship was set upright in a spectacular engineering feat.
“What’s important is not to forget this affair. Instead, if Schettino ends up in prison, after a while everyone will forget about him, just like they will forget about the victims,” Rebello was quoted as saying by the Italian news agency ANSA.
Refusing to comment on the sentence, Rebello added: “What matters is that this tragedy serves to make the [cruise] companies and commanders do what is needed so [the tragedy] doesn’t repeat itself.”
Judge Giovanni Puliatti took more than half an hour to read out all the names, one by one, of the survivors and dead, upon whose behalf civil suits were filed for damages from Costa Crociere SpA.
The total of all damages and court costs of the lawyers who brought the suits was not available.
Schettino chose not to come to court for the verdict.
Puliatti rejected the prosecutor’s request for the defendant’s immediate arrest. The judge said that Schettino still had two levels of appeals to exhaust under Italian law before he must begin serving his sentence.
As they left the court, Schettino’s lawyers said they had not yet spoken to him by telephone.
Lawyers for many of the survivors and victims’ families have attached civil suits to the criminal trial to press the court to order Costa Crociere to pay hefty damages. Their lawyers lamented that no one from the cruise company’s upper echelons was put on trial.
Four Concordia crew members and Costa’s land-based crisis coordinator were allowed to plea bargain. None is serving prison time.
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