Overview
- Four Guardia di Finanza officers and two coast guard members appeared in a Crotone court Friday on charges including negligent homicide and omission tied to the February 2023 disaster.
- According to the indictment, a Frontex plane had alerted authorities hours earlier, a finance police vessel turned back in a storm, and poor coordination delayed a full search-and-rescue response.
- Italian media report all six defendants intend to testify as the case proceeds.
- NGOs including Amnesty International, SOS Humanity and Mediterranea Saving Humans joined the case to seek accountability, while Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini criticized the prosecutions.
- At least 94 people, including 35 children, died in the wreck, and fresh NGO and IOM estimates of hundreds lost during storm Harry highlight ongoing dangers on the central Mediterranean route.