Costa Concordia captain has to live 2 697 years
Francesco Schettino, the captain of the shipwrecked cruise liner Costa Concordia which capsized off the island of Giglio last month, faces up to 2 700 years in prison.
An Italian court has ruled that Schettino must remain under house arrest till a final verdict is brought on February 10. The Florence court rejected both a prosecution motion that Schettino be sent back to jail and a defense motion that he be freed.
The captain faces possible charges of manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship over the January 13 incident. Prosecutors want the captain to be given 10 years for causing the disaster, 15 for multiple manslaughter and eight years for every passenger abandoned (including those who died), making that a total of 2,697 years behind bars.
Currently, 52-year old Schettino is under house arrest serving it at his house in Meta di Sorrrento near Naples which he shares with his wife Fabiola and teen daughter.
Already 17 lives have been lost and an equal number of people are missing after the flamboyant skipper recklessly changed course and crashed the Italian cruise liner onto the reefs.
On January 31, officials ended search for missing cruise ship passengers.
