Six officials probed over Cutro-shipwreck-rescue delay

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 23 - Prosecutors in Crotone on Tuesday served notification to six officials that they have concluded an investigation into allegedly negligent delays in the rescue effort regarding the shipwreck of the Summer Love boat off the Calabrian town of Cutro on February 26, 2023.
    The disaster claimed the lives of at least 94 migrants and refugees, including 35 children, who perished when their boat broke apart on rocks in rough seas just off the coast after five days' sailing from Turkey.
    Italian investigators often serve notification to suspects that they have concluded a probe before making indictment requests.
    The case regards alleged delays by the coast guard and finance police in going out to sea to rescue the boat despite alleged evidence that it was in distress.
    Eighty people survived the disaster.
    Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti, to whom the finance police answer, stood by the officials.
    "Great respect for the judiciary, I defend its work and independence," Giorgetti said via social media.
    "In the same way I strongly defend the work of the finance police and the port authority, certain that they always acted exclusively for the public good, as they do every day, together with the other police forces".
    However, Elly Schlein, the leader of the opposition, centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said the development showed that the Cutro deaths "could have been avoided if the authorities had done their duty.
    "We have demanded truth and justice since one of the greatest tragedies for the number of deaths on our coasts took place between February 25 and 26, 2023," Schlein continued.
    "We are still waiting for (Interior) Minister (Matteo) Piantedosi to answer the question we've been asking since the day of the shipwreck - why weren't the best-suited Coast Guard rescue vessels launched? "The government has been silent since then, but we won't stop demanding to know the truth". (A (ANSA).