(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Italian prosecutors have called for Francesco Schettino, the captain of the doomed Costa Concordia, to be jailed for 26 years for a shipwreck which killed 32 people.
"God have pity on Schettino, because we cannot have any," prosecutor Stefano Pizza said in a speech which accused the man dubbed "Captain Coward" of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship.
Co-prosecutor Maria Navarro told the trial in Grosseto, Tuscany, that it was "not an exaggerated sentence" for a man who "has lied to everyone, to the press, to the court, to the maritime authorities".
"He has never accepted responsibility (and) no elements have emerged in his favour" since his trial began in July 2013, she said.
Schettino, 54, is accused of delaying sounding the alarm or calling for help after hitting rocks off the Italian island of Giglio on January 13, 2012, during a risky drive-by manoeuvre € as well as abandoning ship before many of the passengers had been rescued.
He claims to have saves lives by delaying the evacuation, and blames his crew for failing to alert him to the rocks.
The vast cruise liner was carrying 4,229 people from more than 70 countries when disaster struck.
The delayed evacuation made it impossible to launch many of the lifeboats on one side of the listing vessel, forcing people to throw themselves into the sea to escape.
Navarro said Schettino should serve 14 years for multiple manslaughter, nine years for causing a shipwreck, three years for abandoning ship and three months for lying to maritime authorities.
She also said Schettino was a flight risk and asked for him to be jailed immediately if convicted, rather than waiting for the appeals to be completed.
Schettino's lawyer Domenico Pepe said he hoped the court would remember "we're talking about manslaughter, not murder or a massacre".
Co-defence lawyer Donato Laino slammed the prosecution's request as "almost a life sentence".
Pizza described the captain, who was not present in court, as a "rash idiot", a mix of "rash optimist and capable idiot ... who is so full of himself he causes danger and harm by over-estimating his abilities".
As part of the prosecution's three-day closing statement, the court was shown an underwater video shot by a diver recovery team when they found the body of a five-year old Italian girl, Dayana Arlotti, discovered clasped in the arms of her father in a submerged part of the ship.
Schettino, who has admitted to sailing the ship close to shore to show off, says he delayed calling for help because he knew the currents would guide the vessel towards land.
He insists he did not flee the ship but fell off when it tilted.
He has also said the ship's owner Costa Crociere, Europe's biggest cruise operator, told him by telephone not to return to the stricken liner.
That version of events is contradicted by a widely-quoted recording of a phone call in which a coast guard official is heard upbraiding Schettino and ordering him, in vain, to "get back on board, for f-k's sake".
"The 32 deaths were caused by the cowardly management of the emergency, not the crash," prosecutor Alessandro Leopizzi told the court.
Schettino's supporters say he should not be the only one in the dock. The captain claims Costa Crociere knew their ships routinely went off route to show off picturesque coastlines.
A verdict in the Schettino trial is expected by the middle of February.
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