2 Pakistanis convicted over Italian shipwreck

An Italian court on Tuesday sentenced three people to up to 16 years in jail for their involvement in a migrant shipwreck in which at least 94 people died last year, a judicial source said.

The Feb 26, 2023 nighttime shipwreck near Cutro, a town in the southern region of Calabria, was one of the deadliest in Italy's recent history, involving a wooden sailboat that smashed against rocks within sight of the coastline.

The defendants, two Pakistani and one Turkish, were convicted of aiding and abetting illegal immigration causing the death of the migrants, but cleared from the additional charge of negligent shipwreck.

Under the Italian legal system, the first instance ruling can be appealed at least twice. Along with the alleged human smugglers convicted on Tuesday, prosecutors in the city of Crotone are pushing a several criminal probe into police and coastguard officers over alleged failures to prevent the shipwreck.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's rightist government reacted to the Cutro tragedy by toughening jail terms for migrant smugglers. It also criticised the judicial investigation against the coastguard and police.