Defence lawyers for ex Costa
Concordia captain Francesco Schettino reiterated Wednesday their
client should not be held in custody pending appeal because he
is not likely to flee from justice.
Last month, a court of first instance sentenced Schettino to
16 years in prison for his role in the 2012 Costa Concordia
disaster in which 32 people died.
But it also rejected a prosecution plea for him to be held
behind bars pending the second-tier, appeals phase of his trial.
The court said there was no evidence to suggest Schettino
would seek to flee Italian justice.
"If (he) had wanted to flee, he would have done so in the
last three years," the former cruise captain's lawyers, Saverio
Senese and Donato Laino, told journalists as they left a hearing
in Florence in which the prosecutor's office petitioned once
more for Schettino to be held in jail.
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