Francesco Schettino, dubbed "Captain Coward" by the media after abandoning his cruise ship Costa Concordia when it crashed onto rocks off Tuscany in 2012, should serve 26 years in prison, prosecutors demanded at his trial.
Schettino is being tried for manslaughter in the Jan. 13, 2012 incident, along with abandoning ship while many of his passengers and crew were still on board fighting for their lives,
according to the Daily Mail.
"Francesco Schettino has lied to everyone, to the press, to the court, to the maritime authorities," prosecutor Maria Navarro told the Italian court conducting the trial in her closing argument,
according to Agence France-Presse. "He has never accepted responsibility (and) no elements have emerged in his favor."
Navarro said that Schettino "'thought only and always about himself," at the time of the accident, never apologized to the victims and then left the Costa Concordia "without even getting his shoes wet," noted the Daily Mail.
The prosecutor argued that her sentence was not "exaggerated" for the alleged crime and urged the court to take Schettino back into custody before the verdict.
The Daily Mail reported that five other Costa Concordia ship employees indicted in the case entered plea bargains agreements and none served prison time.
Schettino has claimed in court that by steering the cruise ship to shore after it hit rocks actually saved lives and that his crew incorrectly followed his directions, noted the Daily Mail. The former ship captain also blamed malfunctioning generators on the ship for contributing to the accident.
The ex-captain told the court that he delayed calling for help because he knew the wind would guide the ship towards land and that was forced to abandon ship after he fell off when the Costa Concordia tilted, throwing him into a lifeboat which carried him ashore,
according to The Telegraph.
Schettino's defense will respond to Navarro's closing argument starting Feb. 9. A verdict is expected from the Italian court shortly after the defense closes.
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