Ship's captain sentenced to 18 years in prison for migrant deaths

Migrants are seen after the arrival of the Norwegian border patrol ship Siem Pilot at Salerno harbour on October 5, 2016. Migrants on the ship were mostly from Nigeria, Gambia, Eritrea, Pakistan and Guinea [Alessio Paduano / Anadolu Agency]

A Tunisian man was convicted by an Italian court on Tuesday for the multiple manslaughter of almost 700 migrants who drowned when the overloaded boat of which he was the captain sank in April last year. Muhammad Ali Malik, 28, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The incident was described by several media outlets as one of the Mediterranean’s worst maritime disasters since World War II. Malik denied that he was the captain of the vessel and claimed that he had paid for a place on board like the rest of passengers.

The court in Sicily also sentenced a 26-year-old Syrian man, Mahmoud Bikhit, to five years in prison after he was found guilty of facilitating illegal immigration. Survivors said that Bikhit was Malik’s crewmate. Bikhit denied the charges. The court fined each of them €9 million ($9.5 million).

Only 28 people survived the disaster of the coast of Libya; 675 bodies were recovered from the boat’s wreckage, which was lifted to the surface by the Italian navy earlier this year.

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