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Italian judge orders trial for captain of Costa Concordia

A judge in Italy has ordered that the captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia will stand trial.

Bloomberg reported that the trial of Francesco Schettino will begin on July 9 in Grosseto, Italy.

He faces criminal charges including manslaughter and abandoning the ship before all the 4,200 passengers had been evacuated. 32 people were killed in the disaster.

He is accused of steering the ship too closely to the island as a way of saluting the inhabitants and a veteran captain of the Costa line. Schettino has always denied any wrongdoing, claiming his actions saved lives.

The vessel ran aground near the island of Giglio hours after leaving a port near Rome on January 13 last year.

Last month it emerged Costa Cruises had made a deal with an Italian court to limit its criminal liability for the capsizing of the vessel for a fine of €1 million.

The plea bargain payment means the cruise line will not face any more criminal charges and will now aim to participate in trials as an injured party.

Concordia captain ‘treated worse than Bin Laden’

Just days before the first anniversary of the Costa Concordia tragedy the ship’s captain, who is currently awaiting trial on charges of

multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship, has hit out at the public reaction to his actions.

Back on January 13th 2012, 32 people were killed when the liner carrying them hit rocks off the coast of the island of Giglio on the Tuscan coast.

It was alleged that the collision had been as a result of 52-year-old captain Francesco Schettino’s insistence on carrying out a sail by salute.

In the aftermath of the incident, a series of reports also suggested Mr Schettino had fled his post and escaped on a lifeboat, despite the fact that many of the ship’s passengers remained stuck onboard.

Regardless of this damning evidence, the cruise ship captain remains bitter about the public reaction to the incident.

Speaking in an extraordinary interview with La Stampa newspaper, he claimed: “I’ve been treated worse than Bin Laden.”

“I reject the image that has been attached to myself, it ridicules not only 30 years of my work but my experience worldwide,” he added.

Mr Schettino is due to stand trial later this year.