Rome, May 27 (IANS/AKI) An Italian judge has sentenced a human trafficker to life in prison over a shipwreck off Libya in May last year in which over 200 migrants may have perished, media reports said on Wednesday.
The landmark ruling by the judge in the Sicilian city of Catania jailed Tunisian skipper Haj Hammouda Radouan for life after he was convicted of multiple manslaughter for his role in the shipwreck on May 12, 2014.
The judge sentenced a second human smuggler, Moroccan national Hamid Bouchab, to 10 years in prison over the shipwreck.
It was not immediately clear whether the pair would appeal the ruling.
Coast guard and Italian navy vessels rescued 206 survivors from the shipwreck and recovered 17 bodies, including that of a baby girl, but survivors said there were 400 people on board when the boat set sail.
Prosecutors in Catania welcomed the ruling, noting that it established Italian authorities' jurisdiction over deadly shipwrecks in international waters.
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The shipwreck took place 40 nautical miles off the Libyan coast and around 100 nautical miles from Italy's southernmost island of Lampedusa.
The investigation into the shipwreck was launched in Catania as the survivors and the bodies of the victims were disembarked there.
--IANS/AKI
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