AN ITALIAN COURT ruled today that the captain of a migrant boat that sank in 2015, killing up to 900 people, was responsible for the disaster, the Mediterranean’s worst since World War II.
Judges in the Sicilian port city of Catania ordered Mohammed Ali Malek, a Tunisian national, to serve 18 years in jail for multiple manslaughter, human trafficking and causing the tragedy after the packed boat capsized after colliding with a freighter coming to its aid.
Syrian Mahmoud Bikhit, accused of being his first mate, was handed a five-year sentence for his role in the tragedy off the Libyan coast. Italian forensic scientists spent months sorting through decomposed body parts to count the victims.
The men were ordered to pay nine million euros ($9.5 million) each in compensation.
Both had claimed they were simple migrants and had been made to steer the boat by the real traffickers.
But survivors told investigators that Malek, who had lived in Italy in the past, was the captain. And that it was his lack of sailing skills that caused the deadly collision.
“I spent two years and six months in Italy and I have a young son with an Italian woman: I want to marry her and recognise the baby,” Malek told the court in a plea before the verdict.
“It’s the truth. I’ve always told the truth. Just as I immediately gave (police) my real name, and told them I was a passenger,” he said.
The boat was carrying people largely from The Gambia, Senegal and Mali, as well as Bangladesh, the Ivory Coast and Ethiopia. Only 28 survived.
‘Scapegoat’
Up to 900 people were packed into the 27-metre (90-foot) boat when it left Libya.
While prosecutors have put the number of victims at around 700 because there are 700 body bags, forensic scientists who examined the remains put the number at closer to 900, saying many bags contained pieces of more than one person.
Malek’s lawyer Massimo Ferrante told AFP his client had been “naturally shocked by the verdict, but told me he wants to fight”.
They will be appealing, he said.
Firefighters who recovered the mangled bodies from the rotting ship said they had been “packed in like on the trains for Auschwitz”.
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