Italy court to rule on ship wreck captain

Technicians work near the cruise liner Costa Concordia lying aground in front of the Isola del Giglio (Giglio island) on January 27, 2012 after hitting underwater rocks on January 13. Official sources said the same day that here are still 18 people officially missing after the Costa Concordia cruise liner crashed off the coast of Tuscany two weeks ago, including a five-year-old girl. AFP PHOTO

ROME—An Italian court is expected to rule Monday on whether the captain of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino, will remain under house arrest or be released.

Schettino, who faces charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship in the January 13 disaster which cost 32 lives, was taken into police custody the day after the shipwreck.

He was released into house arrest at his home in Meta di Sorrento, near Naples, despite prosecutors’ claims he posed an escape risk and could tamper with evidence.

A Florence court will hear Monday from prosecutors who want the 52-year-old returned to prison to await trial. The captain’s lawyers will argue that he should be freed.

The hearing had been scheduled for February 10 but was brought forward.

Schettino is accused negligently grounding the ship on Giglio Island off the coast of Tuscany after sailing dangerously close to the shore. The ship capsized with more than 4,200 people on board.

The captain, which one newspaper described as “Italy’s most hated man”, is accused of having abandoned ship before all passengers were safe.

A dramatic port authority recording of a radio exchange with the captain as the disaster unfolded in the darkened seas showed that Schettino ignored an order to return to the ship. He claimed he had fallen into a lifeboat and could not get back on board to supervise the evacuation of the remaining passengers.

There have been conflicting reports as to what happened in the crucial hours after the crash and whether the ship’s parent company Costa was involved in an attempted cover-up or Schettino tried to remove evidence from the ship.

Investigators questioned a Moldovan ballerina after witness reports that she had dined with Schettino. Italian newspapers reported that she confessed to being “in love” and “a guest” of the doomed ship’s captain.

The woman was quoted as saying that she was on the bridge when the ship went aground but Schettino has insisted there was no-one apart from authorized staff there at the time.

The Concordia’s first officer Ciro Ambrosio is also accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all the passengers were evacuated, but has not been taken into custody.