The Court of Appeal of Genoa rejected the petition for the review of the trial presented by the lawyers of Francesco Schettino, the former commander of the Costa Concordia, the ship that ended up against the rocks on the island of Giglio in January 2012. The lawyers have announced that they will appeal to the Court of Cassation but at the moment the sentence remains that established by the court of Grosseto, which has come to be definitive, i.e. 16 years in prison, of which Schettino has already served the first five in Rebibbia.
The defenders Saverio Senese and Paola Astarita had presented the request for revision relating to one of the charges of the conviction, that for the manslaughter of the 32 victims, but not for injuries, shipwreck, abandonment of the ship, failure to communicate to the authorities.
"We are always convinced that the accusation of manslaughter against Schettino was erroneous on the basis of evaluations of elements of a scientific, technical, engineering nature - says Senese - for this reason we have presented the request for revision even if we are in the condition of Davide against Goliath. Schettino could not have access to the expert apparatus of the same level as the one who accused him and we too make attempts that find it difficult. However, we remain convinced that the accusation of manslaughter for the 32 deceased is unfounded and we propose an appeal to the Supreme Court ".
(Unioneonline / ss)
