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Lawyer’s strike could delay Concordia trial

A court official has warned that national strike by Italian lawyers could delay the start of the manslaughter trial of the Costa Concordia's captain, charged for the cruise liner's deadly shipwreck in January 2012.

Published: 4 July 2013 15:10 CEST

Lawyer's strike could delay Concordia trial

Costa Concordia claimed 32 lives when it crashed into rocks off the island of Giglio. Photo: AFP

The first hearing will take place as scheduled on Tuesday, but if defendant Francesco Schettino's lawyers tell the judge they are adhering to the strike, then the trial will get under way only on July 17th.

"We cannot know ahead of time," the official at the court in Grosseto, the nearest town to the site of the wreck, told the AFP on Thursday.

The next hearings after Tuesday are set for July 17th, 18th and 19th.

Travelling with 4,229 people from 70 countries on board, the cruise ship crashed into rocks off the island of Giglio and keeled over, sparking a panicky evacuation in a disaster that claimed 32 lives.

Schettino has been charged with multiple counts of manslaughter, as well with causing an environmental disaster, and abandoning the ship before all the passengers had been evacuated.

Four other crew members and a manager from ship owner Costa Crociere, Europe's top cruise operator, have agreed plea bargains which are likely to be confirmed in separate hearings.

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Danish terror trial begins against Iranian separatists

File photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

The three risk 12 years in prison if found guilty.

Aged 39 to 50, the trio are members of the separatist organisation ASMLA (Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz), which is based in Denmark and the Netherlands and which Iran considers a terrorist group.

The three, one of whom is a Danish citizen, have been held in custody in Denmark since February 2020.

Gert Dyrn, lawyer for the eldest of the three, told AFP that in his client’s opinion “what they are charged with is legitimate resistance towards an oppressive regime.”

“They are not denying receiving money from multiple sources, including Saudi Arabia, to help the movement and help them accomplish their political aim,” Dyrn said.

His client has lived as a refugee in Denmark since 2006.

According to the charge sheet seen by AFP, the three received around 30 million kroner (four million euros, $4.9 million) for ASMLA and its armed branch, through bank accounts in Austria and the United Arab Emirates.

The trio is also accused of spying on people and organisations in Denmark between 2012 and 2020 for Saudi intelligence.

Finally, they are also accused of promoting terrorism and “encouraging the activities of the terrorist movement Jaish Al-Adl, which has activities in Iran, by supporting them with advice, promotion, and coordinating attacks.”

The case dates back to 2018 when one of the three was the target of a foiled attack on Danish soil believed to be sponsored by the Iranian regime in retaliation for the killing of 24 people in Ahvaz, southwestern Iran, in September 2018.

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Tehran formally denied the attack plan in Denmark, but a Danish court last year jailed a Norwegian-Iranian for seven years for his role in the plot.

That attack put Danish authorities on the trail of the trio’s ASMLA activities.

Sunni Saudi Arabia is the main rival in the Middle East of Shia Iran, and Tehran regularly accuses it, along with Israel and the United States, of supporting separatist groups.

Lawyer Gert Dyrn said this was “the first case in Denmark within terror law where you have to consider who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter.”

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