Roundup: Costa Concordia's captain made "criminal" decision: Italian court report

An Italian court on Monday released it's justification for sentencing the former captain of shipwrecked Costa Concordia Francesco Schettino to 16 years in jail, saying Schettino made a "criminal" choice by bringing the ship so close to the land, local media reported.

In February this year, the court found Schettino guilty of causing the major shipwreck off the Tuscan Giglio Island in which 32 people died in 2012.

In a report unveiled on Monday, the court detailed the reasons why it considered Schettino the main person responsible for the disaster.

"The criminal choice, let pass the word, was the original decision to bring a ship with such characteristics and at such a speed so close to the island," the three-judge panel wrote, according to ANSA news agency.

The captain was aware that people were still on board the Concordia when he got on a lifeboat during evacuation, and he did so "with the clear intention of not going back", the report added.

"When the defendant left the Concordia permanently, the situation was such that it would have been impossible, or at least difficult, for passengers still aboard to find safety," the judges said.

The Concordia luxury cruise was sailing close to the tiny Giglio Island on the night of Jan. 13, 2012, when it deviated from its standard route to perform a near-shore "salute".

In the manoeuvre, the 290-meter-long vessel collided with rocks and partially capsized only few hundred meters from shore.

More than 4,200 people were aboard the Concordia. Thirty-two of them lost their lives and 157 were injured in the chaotic evacuation that followed.

A first grade trial opened in the city of Grosseto, Tuscany, in July 2013, with Schettino facing charges of manslaughter, causing shipwreck, and abandoning ship during evacuation.

The captain denied the charges, claiming he was being made a scapegoat for a "collective failure" that brought about the shipwreck. He also claimed he had not immediately ordered evacuation after the collision to avoid panic and reduce the risk of dangerous behaviour among passengers.

In the report explaining the sentence, the court said it held him responsible for both the hazardous manoeuvre that caused the collision and the consequent shipwreck, and for failing in his duty to safely manage the evacuation.

The judges believed Schettino lingered after the collision, so that "when the emergency alarm was raised, the situation had turned into extreme confusion and absence of unequivocal orders on board, causing chaos among crew and passengers".

There would have been no victims if the evacuation were not delayed and the captain had managed the emergency "with due competence and diligence", according to the court.

The judges wrote the captain was "in denial" about the real situation of the ship and the danger it posed to the people aboard, which brought about the delay in calling the emergency.

The casualties did not occur when the ship collided with the rocks, but "in the following emergency phase, triggered by the gross negligence" of the captain, the report pointed out. Endit