Italian prosecutors called Monday for judges to show “no pity” to Francesco Schettino, the captain of the doomed Costa Concordia, demanding he serve 26 years and three months in jail for a shipwreck in which 32 people died.
“God have pity on Schettino, because we cannot have any,” prosecutor Stefano Pizza said in his summing up speech, which accused the man dubbed “Captain Coward” by the media of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship.
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, as well as abandoning ship before many of the passengers had been rescued.
He claims he managed to save lives by delaying the evacuation, and blames his crew for failing to alert him to the rocks.
The Costa Concordia was refloated in a massive salvage operation last summer and towed to its home port of Genoa.