A court in Italy on Tuesday sentenced three individuals to up to 16 years in prison for their involvement in a shipwreck that claimed at least 94 lives last year.
The incident occurred in February 2023 when a wooden sailing boat carrying migrants crashed into rocks off the coast of Cutro, a town in the southern Calabria region. The disaster became one of the deadliest in recent Italian history.
The defendants, two Pakistanis and one Turkish national, were convicted of aiding and abetting illegal immigration, leading to the deaths of asylum seekers. However, they were acquitted of the additional charge of causing the shipwreck by negligence.
In addition to the alleged smugglers sentenced on Tuesday, prosecutors in the city of Crotone are pursuing a separate criminal investigation into police and coast guard personnel for their possible failure to prevent the shipwreck.
