Italian appeal court confirms Concordia's captain 16-year sentence for 2012 shipwreck

An appeal court in Italy's Florence on Tuesday sentenced former captain of Costa Concordia cruise ship Francesco Schettino to 16 years in prison, confirming the original verdict.

Schettino was confirmed guilty of causing the disastrous shipwreck of Costa Concordia in which 32 people died and 157 were injured for a night accident occurred off the west coast of Italy at Giglio Island on Jan. 13, 2012.

The Florence prosecutor had asked for 27 years in jail for the former captain. Cameras were prohibited and Schettino was not present in the courtroom.

Italy's judicial system offers defendants three levels of trial before a conviction becomes definitive, and both sides of law cases have the right to appeal to higher courts.

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

According to the first grade court which sentenced him in February 2015 to 16 years in jail, the former captain had made a "criminal" choice by bringing the 290-meter-long ship too close to the coast, which caused it to collide with rocks and partially capsize with more than 4,200 passengers aboard.

Schettino had remained the only defendant after four crew members and an officer of Costa Crociere, the owner company of Costa Concordia, reached plea bargains.

The captain has always denied the charges and claimed he was being made a scapegoat.

The wreck of the Costa Concordia was removed from Giglio Island in July 2014, and towed to the northern port of Genoa to be scrapped, after an unprecedented salvage operation that cost the owner company an estimated 1.5 billion euros (1.67 billion U.S. dollars). Endit