Costa Concordia trial judges agree to examination of wrecked ship
Captain shifts blame for Concordia crash
Lawyers for Capt. Francesco Schettino had asked the panel of three judges on Monday
for permission to tour the ship's bridge and engine room as part of a
defense strategy he says will prove Schettino was not the only person
responsible for the disaster.
The move could delay the legal process for months.
Schettino's defense is
trying to prove that the ship's watertight doors did not function
properly, and that is the reason the ship sank, leading to the loss of
32 lives during the evacuation.
A special team of divers
will have to examine parts of the ship which are still under water,
including the engine room and watertight doors.
The liner, which crashed
on the rocks off Giglio Island in January 2012, was rotated back to
vertical last week after well over a year resting on its side. The
unprecedented maneuver, called parbuckling, exposed a twisted mass of
metal dotted with mattresses, passenger luggage and deck chairs on the
ship's previously submerged starboard side.
Now that the Concordia is upright, there can be further investigation of the captain's alleged mishandling of the ship.
Defense lawyers for
Schettino agreed with lawyers representing more than 200 civil parties
against the captain, including Giglio Island and several passenger and
environmental advocacy groups, in asking for a new examination of the
ship.
Prosecutors are expected
to argue that Schettino's decision to take the cruise liner off course
is what caused the loss of life, not secondary mistakes or malfunctions.
Schettino also argued
Monday that Indonesian helmsman Jacob Rusli Bin's failure to understand
his command to turn away from the rocks led to the crash.
Rusli Bin and four
others were convicted in a plea deal in July for their role in the
disaster. A Florence court is considering the validity of those plea
bargain agreements.
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