Italian Court News

A charity rescue ship carrying 134 migrants, mostly Africans, was stranded off the coast of Italy on Friday as a political battle in Rome stopped it from docking and even the medical conditions of those on board were disputed.The migrants, picked up off Libya over the last two weeks, are waiting to disembark on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, but far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has ordered his officials not to let them do so.Salvini, who has built his popularity on a vigorous campaign against illegal immigration, is acting in defiance of his own prime minister and despite six European Union nations agreeing to take…

The prison sentence against the former captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner for his role in the deadly 2012 shipwreck was upheld on Tuesday by an Italian court. Both Francesco Schettino, who was commanding the ship when it hit rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio, killing 32 people, and the prosecutor had appealed against the 16 years and one month sentence handed down last year. But the Florence appeals court upheld the term. Schettino was found guilty last year by a different court of multiple manslaughter…

One of busiest weekends for sea crossings this year. Around 6,800 migrants were rescued from overcrowded boats crossing to Europe over the weekend, including a mother who gave birth to a baby girl on an Italian navy ship, the coast guard said. Numbers risking the journey in search of a better life have continued to rise two weeks after as many as 900 people drowned in the worst Mediterranean shipwreck in living memory. Crew from the Italian naval vessel Bettica found the woman in labour on a boat overnight -- one of 34 vessels intercepted over the weekend. A photo posted online showed her new daughter sleeping in a makeshift cradle decorated with a pink bow. "Both mother and daughter are in good health," the navy said in a statement.

Captain Francesco Schettino was sentenced to 16 years in prison after an Italian court found him guilty of  manslaughter today for his role in the 2012 sinking of the Costa Concordia. The 52-year old was captain of a cruise liner carrying 4,252 passengers  when it sank off the coast of Isola del Giglio, Tuscany in January 2012, killing 32 people. Schettino was accused of taking the liner too close to shore and abandoning the ship while passengers and crew were still on board. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 26 years and three months. Schettino was not in the Grosseto court when the verdict was read. Schettino claimed he had taken the ship so close to land for "commercial reasons" and to please his passengers and those ashore, the BBC reported.

Five employees of an Italian cruise company for the Costa Concordia shipwreck that killed 32 crew and passengers were convicted in an Italian court on Saturday after it accepted their plea bargains. The longest sentence went to the crisis coordinator for Costa Crociere SpA, the cruise company, who was sentenced to two years and 10 months. Concordia's hotel director was sentenced to two years and six months while two bridge officers and a helmsman got sentences ranging from one year and eight months to one year and 11 months.

Italian cruise firm Costa Crociere has been fined €1-million (US$1.3-million) for the sinking which killed 32 people. Costa had asked for a plea bargain deal to respond to the administrative sanctions, which under Italian law are for companies whose employees commit crimes, and Judge Valeria Montesarchio accepted that plea after a hearing at the Tuscan tribunal, reports 'Herald Scotland'. Costa, a division of Miami-based Carnival, has sought to blame the disaster entirely on Captain Francesco Schettino, and prosecutors are seeking indictments for Schettino and five other people on charges including manslaughter. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Monday but it is not clear if the judge will make a decision then on whether to order a trial.

An Italian court begins hearings to determine who could stand trial as responsible for the cruise ship disaster. Hundreds of lawyers, scientific experts and survivors from the Costa Concordia tragedy in January are expected to attend the hearing in the Tuscan city of Grosseto, not far from where the giant liner lies beached, according to the ANP/AFT news services. The ship's captain Francesco Schettino, five crew members and three managers from ship owner Costa Crociere are under investigation. The court will review expert findings into the crash before ruling on who, if anyone, should stand trial. Source ANP/AFP