Former Costa Concordia
captain Francesco Schettino was absent from trial proceedings
for the second day in a row on Tuesday, citing family
difficulties.
On Monday Schettino's laywer, Domenico Pepe, said Schettino
will take legal action against his ex-lover, Moldavian dancer
Domnica Cemortan, for suggesting he had a mysterious object
taken away on the night of the January 2012 disaster in which 32
people died.
In Tuesday's hearing, Pepe said, "If Domnica Cemortan were
to run in the next elections in Moldova, then we'd really be
finished".
Tuesday's hearing, the forty-fourth in the trial, began with
passenger testimony.
"We were terrified. The ship was tilted and the lifeboat
wouldn't go down. There wasn't anyone to help us, we couldn't
see any crew members and it was dark," shipwreck survivor
Ernesto Carusotti said.
Carusotti said that the lifeboat was almost capsized by the
ship as it overturned, and Carusotti's wife, Paola Falconi, said
there weren't any crew members to assist them once they reached
land on the island of Giglio.
"We were told to get on a bus, and we were mute, none of us
could speak," Falconi said.
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