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An Italian court sentences three men for their responsibility in the Cutro shipwreck in 2023

An Italian court sentences three men for their responsibility in the Cutro shipwreck in 2023

MADRID Dec. 10 () –

An Italian court has sentenced three men to sentences of between 11 and 16 years this Tuesday for their responsibility in the death of 94 migrants due to a shipwreck that took place in February 2023 off the coast of Steccato di Cutro, in Calabria. .

The Crotone court has sentenced Hasad Hussain, a 22-year-old Pakistani citizen, and Sami Fuat, a 51-year-old Turkish citizen, to 16 years in prison for contributing to illegal migration and being complicit in the deaths of migrants.

Another Pakistani citizen, Khalid Arslan, 26, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for the same reasons. The judges, however, have acquitted the three accused of a charge of negligent shipwreck, according to the newspaper ‘Corriere della Sera’.

The Italian Justice considers that the three defendants, although they were not considered smugglers, had an active role in the management of the damaged boat, although their defense has maintained throughout the trial that they were “simple passengers.”

The same Italian court already sentenced Gun Ufuk, 29 years old and Turkish citizen, to 20 years in prison for human trafficking for the same reasons last February. The accused then denied having been in command of the boat, although he was one of the four alleged traffickers who were traveling aboard it.

In parallel, the Italian authorities charged six members of the Coast Guard and the Guardia di Finanza who should have intervened directly to analyze the safety conditions of the vessel and the people on board.

The boat, which was carrying around 180 migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Syria, had set sail from the port of Izmir, in Turkey, and capsized a few meters from the coast. The barge, on which there were more than a dozen minors, crashed into some rocks before the migrants could call for help.

According to the Italian authorities, the Frontex plane, the European border agency, notified the operational section in Crotona, but the terrible sea conditions forced the team to turn around. The shipwreck sparked a significant wave of protests in Italy.

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