Grosseto, Italy - An Italian court is mulling whether to hand down indictments against the captain and some crew of the Costa Concordia cruise ship for the 2012 grounding off Tuscany that killed 32 people.
Prosecutors want Captain Francesco Schettino to stand trial for alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all passengers had been evacuated. They want four other crew members and a Costa manager to face charges of having botched the emergency
Schettino attended the preliminary, closed-door hearing on Monday in the Tuscan city of Grosseto; the timing of a decision was unknown.
Schettino took the cruise ship off course and rammed it into a reef off Giglio island on January 13, 2012, in a stunt. He has said he saved lives by bringing the ship closer to port. - Sapa-AP