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Captain of shipwrecked Costa Concordia found guilty of manslaughter

Xinhua, February 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

An Italian court found the former captain of Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino, guilty of manslaughter on Wednesday, Italian media reported.

The jury sentenced Schettino to 16 years and one month in jail, and also ruled he should be perpetually banned from public office, according to ANSA news agency.

Schettino was facing charges of manslaughter, causing shipwreck, and abandoning ship during the evacuation of the major shipwreck which occurred off the coast of Giglio Island on Jan. 13, 2012.

More than 4,200 people were aboard the Concordia that night, and 32 of them died when the ship capsized after hitting rocks just few hundred meters from shore.

The former captain was accused of taking the huge luxury ship too close to Giglio Island's shore, which caused the incident.

Both Schettino, as well as Concordia's owner, the Costa Crociere company, were ordered to pay compensation to all civil plaintiffs, to Giglio Island, the Italian state, and the civil protection agency, among others.

The prosecution had asked for 26 years incarceration for the former captain.

Since the beginning, Schettino has denied all the charges. During the trial, his lawyers claimed that he had been made a scapegoat for the incident and the deadly shipwreck had been the result of a "collective failure."

The trial opened in July 2013 in Grosseto, Tuscany, and Schettino had remained the only defendant after five others implicated in the case reached plea bargains. Endit